July 14, 2026
Alexandria, VA—Today, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Outpatient Surgery Access Act of 2026. The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association supports this legislation, which, if enacted, would stabilize ASC reimbursements by requiring the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to use the same inflation factor used to update hospital payment rates. The legislation also would remove a budget neutrality adjustment that increasingly depresses ASC rates and discourages the migration of procedures to the lower-cost ASC setting.
“Surgery centers perform millions of essential elective procedures for Medicare beneficiaries every year,” said ASCA Chief Executive Officer Bill Prentice. “Ensuring an accurate and stable payment system is key to increasing patient access to low-cost, high-quality surgery centers. ASCA thanks Senators Cassidy and Blumenthal for supporting these much-needed changes to ASC payments.”
Reps. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) and John Larson (D-CT) introduced identical legislation in the U.S. House (H.R. 8091) on March 25, 2026. By introducing this companion bill, the push to protect patient access to affordable outpatient care officially becomes a bipartisan, bicameral effort.
CMS aligned the surgery center payment system with the hospital outpatient payment system in 2009. However, CMS has historically updated ASC rates using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The CPI-U measures changes in prices for common household consumer goods but is not an accurate reflection of the costs of operating a healthcare facility. By contrast, hospital payments are updated using the hospital market basket price index, which incorporates prices for healthcare-related inputs such as healthcare wages, medical equipment and malpractice insurance. The difference in inflationary update factors creates a disparity in reimbursement between ASCs and hospitals, threatening access to the critical care that surgery centers provide. In 2019, CMS agreed to update surgery center payments using the hospital market basket for a trial period, which is set to expire at the end of 2026.
According to a recent analysis from KNG Health Consulting, ASCs currently save Medicare more than $5 billion per year and are projected to save the Medicare program $84.8 billion over the next 10 years. The Outpatient Surgery Access Act of 2026 ensures these community-based care centers can keep their doors open and continue driving down healthcare costs for beneficiaries nationwide.