Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are becoming an increasingly important customer base for medtechs as procedures continue to shift from hospitals to this more cost-effective and convenient care setting. In fact, ASC-related revenues and spending are expected to grow 6%-8% per year through 2027.
However, ASCs are a challenging customer base for medtechs to serve due to several unique dynamics, including:
- Their fragmentation across many smaller call points
- Limited market data on their segmentation, behaviors and attitudes
- Their high price sensitivity with expectations for discounts relative to hospital prices
- Medtechs’ difficulty in sustaining traditional selling, general and administrative expenses models when serving ASCs
- The potential for greater distributor customer control and ability to disintermediate
To help medtechs understand the latest priorities, purchasing expectations and behaviors of ASCs, L.E.K. Consulting presents the 2024 ASC Insights Study. The study leverages data from an approximately 150-respondent survey of ASC physicians and administrators, learnings from ASC-focused projects with hundreds of interviews, in-depth reviews and syntheses of published data, analysis of content management system claims data, and longitudinal comparisons to our 2020 ASC Insights Study.
In the enclosed report, we discuss six key themes that have emerged from the 2024 ASC Insights Study, reflecting how ASCs have advanced as customers and how medtechs can better support the evolving ASC landscape:
- ASC segmentation: The ASC market is diverse, with a range of key archetypes based on ownership (i.e., 100% physician owned, hospital owned, management company owned) and specialty of focus (i.e., multispecialty versus single specialty)
- Robust market growth: ASC revenue is expected to grow around 6%-8% per year through 2027, driven by increasing procedure volumes and reimbursement rates, increasing ASC spending, and a mix shift toward higher-value procedures; pockets of higher growth are expected in emerging specialties
- Increased professionalization: ASCs remain heterogeneous in their purchasing attitudes but have made operational improvements and are becoming more professionalized as they scale, with some differences by ownership structure
- Strategic priorities: While quality of care, staffing and basic operations are key table stakes priorities, ASCs are also focused on expansion to new physicians, procedures, payer networks and specialties as they continue to mature
- Medtech partnerships and offerings: Many ASCs are seeking closer partnerships with medtechs that can help them deliver on their clinical and economic objectives, including contracting (and support) models that are more aligned with ASC settings
- Developing a winning ASC strategy: ASCs have historically been a challenging (and deprioritized) customer segment for medtechs but require sufficient attention and tailored approaches as they become an increasingly important portion of the market
To learn more, please download our analysis.
The authors would like to thank Jenny Mackey, Natalie Needle and the Healthcare Insights Center for their contributions to this article.
For more information, please contact healthcare@lekinsights.com.
L.E.K. Consulting is a registered trademark of L.E.K. Consulting LLC. All other products and brands mentioned in this document are properties of their respective owners. © 2024 L.E.K. Consulting LLC
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