This article will describe the procedures available at these facilities and list the benefits of each location.
They are not connected to a hospital.
How Does It Work?
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Procedures performed in an ambulatory surgery center are notably easier to conduct in healthy patients.
They are designed specifically for procedural-based care.
How Is the Facility Different?
Ambulatory surgery centers are separate from large hospitals.
Instead, ambulatory surgery centers are typically owned and managed by a private entity or group of healthcare providers.
This difference largely stems from the formula used to determine the price of a procedure.
This difference might seem confusing since the same procedure will be performed in both surgical facilities.
However, the cost of medical care and procedures includes other, overhead expenses.
On average, ambulatory surgery centers reduce costs to the person being treated by approximately $684 per procedure.
Therefore, prices of procedures performed in a hospital end up being higher.
Also, a large hospital system is required to offer a more significant number and range of services.
For instance, a hospital must maintain an emergency department that requires many resources.
Ambulatory surgery centers are not required to maintain an emergency department.
These cost differences will probably go unnoticed by someone with traditional health insurance.
However, the differences can be more noticeable for people without insurance and those with Medicare.
An outpatient hospital is an extension financially and administratively of a larger hospital system.
Sometimes an outpatient hospital can appear to be a stand-alone facility.
However, if it is managed financially and administratively by a hospital system, it is an outpatient hospital.
Healthcare providers are not often involved in ownership and daily facility administration.
However, all healthcare facilities are held to the same patient care standards.
The difference primarily comes down to cost.
Outpatient hospitals typically are more expensive than ambulatory surgery centers.
Data from 2019 show that the average cost of an outpatient hospital procedure was $7,700.
In contrast, the price was $3,160 in an ambulatory surgery center.
This difference is due to higher overhead costs for a larger hospital system that offers more specialty services.
Advantages of Outpatient Hospitals
The trend in health care has been moving toward ambulatory surgical care.
Which Facility Is Best for You?
Uncomplicated diagnostic and preventive procedures are best performed in an ambulatory surgery center.
Somewhat complex surgical procedures in healthy people can be cheaper and more efficient in an ambulatory surgery center.
Can an Ambulatory Surgery Center and Outpatient Hospital Be Used Together?
These facilities cannot be combined.
Each facility must follow strict guidelines since the procedure and patient care reimbursement rates differ.
However, you may have some procedures performed at an ambulatory surgery center and others at an outpatient hospital.
Summary
Ambulatory surgery centers and outpatient hospitals offer surgical, diagnostic, and preventive procedural services.
However, they primarily differ in cost.
Ambulatory surgery centers offer other benefits to patients, including efficiency and predictability without risks to care.
The trend in the United States is toward ambulatory surgical care.
If you need an elective procedure, a healthcare provider will most likely recommend an ambulatory surgery center.
These facilities offer excellent services at a reduced price.
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.Ambulatory surgery centers versus hospital-based outpatient departments: what’s the difference?
Texas Health and Human Services.Ambulatory surgical centers.
Healthcare Financial Management Association.HOPDs vs. ASC: understanding payment differences.
UnitedHealth Group.Shifting common procedures to ambulatory surgery centers can save patients more than $680.
Advancing Surgical Care Association.Study: commercial insurance cost savings in ambulatory surgery centers.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Ambulatory surgery centers.
