Physician consolidation driving procedures to HOPDs, not ASCs: Study

Becker's Healthcare August 8, 2024
Patsy Newitt

The vertical integration of physician groups and health systems is resulting in a push to procedures to hospital outpatient departments over ASCs, driving Medicare and patient out-of-pocket costs up, according to a study published July 25 in Science Direct.

The study analyzed data from 2013 to 2019 from 1 million arthroscopy and 10 million colonoscopy procedures in the U.S. Medicare population to determine how vertical integration changes services.

Here are five key notes:

1. The report found that following vertical integration, there is a 5 percentage point increase in the use of HOPDs instead of ASCs for arthroscopy and a 6.8 percentage point increase for colonoscopies.

2. The report also estimated that vertical integration leads to 3.1...

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