More hospitals than ever are investing in ambulatory surgery centers, according to Chris Bishop, CEO of Westchester, Ill.-based ASC manager Regent Surgical Health, and that attention has captured the eyes of Wall Street.
Mr. Bishop discussed how ASCs could help hospitals and health systems maximize their value-based reimbursement strategy during a presentation at the Becker's Hospital Review 7th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable conference, which took place Nov. 12-14 in Chicago.
The decision by several large-scale for-profit operators to invest in outpatient care has caught the eyes of Wall Street investors, according to Mr. Bishop. Such moves include Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare's decision to invest $2 billion into outpatient expansion in 2018, and Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare's move to spend $100 million to $150 million on outpatient growth, he notes.
As the industry transitions to the value-based care model, investing in an ASC makes sense from a hospital standpoint, Mr. Bishop said. ASCs provide better outpatient capabilities between advancements in technology, the use of smaller incisions, and advances in anesthesia and pain-management techniques. More than half, or 51 percent, of hip and knee joint replacement surgeries will take place in an outpatient setting by 2026, Mr. Bishop said, citing data from hospital consultancy Sg2 Research.
The transition process will also likely experience disruption to some degree by companies like Amazon, which will continue to move into the healthcare space.
"This is why you're going to see the Amazons of the world targeting [healthcare], because the aggressive evolution of this has been slow and coming, and you're going to find the major disruptors clearly targeting and showing solutions in our markets that may or may not include us," Mr. Bishop said.