elevated our vision and strategy from being a convenient place for physicians to perform outpatient surgery to focusing on delivering the most innovative , high-quality , low-cost specialty healthcare — with a state-of-theart ASC as the primary access point for orthopaedic surgery .

Q : What are some factors contributing to the surge in demand for ASC services ? A : Costs are on the rise and health systems are constantly shifting to become lean to increase margins . ASCs have an advantage on this front , as ASCs have always had to be positioned to operate this way .

Recent studies suggest outpatient ASC total joints and spine cases can cost up to 40 % less than hospital-based procedures , while delivering equally quality outcomes and lower infection rates — all while approved ASC procedures continues to rise . 1

Through creative relationships with industry partners , ASCs now have access to technological advances in anesthesia , pain control techniques and innovative equipment such as robotics that were once primarily available in major health systems . Access to

state-of-the-art tools and technology allows ASCs to consistently drive efficiency and create value propositions that keep them competitive in the market .

Patients also play a pivotal role . With individuals being asked to shoulder more of the financial responsibility for their medical care , they are increasingly turning to surgery centers for help .

This is an exciting time in the ambulatory surgery market , with the surging demand for ASC services and procedures from both the patient and payor sides . And , while there may be a perception that the market favors larger facilities , there is a path for private and independent ASCs to be competitive and thrive in this marketplace as well .

Q : What operational insights can help ASCs thrive ? A : Data analytics will show opportunities to cut costs and become more efficient . There is a certain amount of waste in healthcare operations that can be avoided by tracking and analyzing certain data collected by ASCs . The key is to find and use the correct information to produce outputs to grow margins .

Data is the great leveler in cost

ASCs can save patients up to

over hospital procedures

and profit conversations . ASCs that leverage their operational data to inform the cost of delivering a specific procedure — along with the associated costs of acquiring and maintaining the necessary tools , equipment , and staff — negotiate rates and reimbursements from a position of strength .

Our goal is always to leverage data with buying power and relationships for the best costs . And this is where our partnership with Medline comes into play .

Our relationship with Medline began with custom packs and has evolved to more of a total distribution model . Our partnership goal is relatively the same except now with more detail and focus — using Medline ’ s tools to evaluate our supply chain paths , analyzing contracts and opportunities to save , and becoming more efficient .

We ’ ll continue to focus on analytics and innovation together , using analytics to evaluate cost opportunities and trends crucial to maintaining margins .

Medline consistently demonstrates their knowledge and experience of ASCs from both the clinical standpoint and the business side of things . Medline understands what we ’ re trying to do and the challenges we face with reimbursements , increasing costs , etc . And it ’ s good to have a company with Medline ’ s size and scale working on our behalf . We rely on our partnership to uncover strategy and solutions that help us achieve low costs and high quality .

There ’ s also a lot of trust in this prime vendor partnership , and that allows us to work at a pretty efficient pace together — which is key .

Reference 1 UnitedHealth Group . ( 2020 , December 10 ). New Research Highlights the Safety and Cost Savings Associated with Ambulatory Surgery Centers . Unitedhealthgroup . com . https :// www . unitedhealthgroup . com / newsroom / research-reports / posts / 2020-12-10-research-ambulatory-surgery-centers-490916 . html #:~: text = Findings % 20 from % 20new % 20UnitedHealth % 20 Group ,% 243 % 20billion % 20in % 20 annual % 20savings .