The ASC Shift Is Accelerating, Is Your GTM Model Ready

Ambulatory Surgery Centers Are Growing, Consolidating and Changing How Medtech Vendors Compete For Share

The shift towards ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) has been underway for more than a decade, but that move is gaining even more momentum. In just four years, the number of national and regionally operating ASCs has grown by 28%. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved 560 new ASC procedures for calendar year 2026, expanding both the volume and the complexity of what can be done outside a hospital. Plus, consolidation is reshaping who controls access: Ascension’s $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg, SCA Health/Optum’s acquisition of U.S. Digestive Health and USPI/Tenet’s ongoing M&A are only the largest recent examples.

Industry forecasts expect this pace to continue. ASC net patient revenue is projected to grow from $44.5 billion to $103.4 billion by 2034, an 8% to 9% compound annual growth rate.[1] Depending on the specialty, procedure volumes are projected to increase 5% to 25% by 2030. Even in the fastest-shifting specialties, providers expect no more than 70% of procedures to move to an ASC by 2030.[2]

The three forces driving this fundamental change are an aging population, continued device and procedural innovation that makes more conditions treatable in outpatient and a payer and regulatory environment that favors an ASC setting’s lower cost.

Alexander Group’s 2026 Provider Briefing, based on 100 hospital executives and physicians, points to five initiatives that will help MedTech companies gain share in ASCs.

1. Price the Way ASCs Buy, Instead of the Way Hospitals Purchase

ASC operating and capital budgets are more constrained than hospitals, reimbursement is largely procedure-based and profitability depends on maximizing throughput, utilization and efficiency. Because of this, ASC leaders favor pricing and contract structures that offer cost predictability and demonstrate measurable impact on operational performance and margins.  Vendors that lock in procedure-based bundles and pair this with a quantified uptime story are the ones earning preferred-vendor status.

2. Target Accounts With Data, Not Instinct

Procedure volume gains of 5% to 25% by 2030 will not land evenly across specialties or accounts. Use advanced analytics and market sizing to define the addressable ASC opportunity for each product or therapy area, then prioritize the segments with the highest propensity to win. One useful marker to keep in mind: Once ASC volume approaches 20% of a product’s total addressable market, that segment usually needs a differentiated commercial structure rather than a shared rep covering both acute and outpatient settings.

3. Win Trust Before You Win the Deal

ASC vendor discovery is still relationship-led. Conferences and trade shows (60%), rep outreach (59%) and peer recommendations (49%) all outrank online search, webinars and LinkedIn. Independent, physician-owned ASCs lean even more heavily on conferences (65%) and peer recommendations (55%) than health-system-affiliated ASCs (50% and 36%, respectively). These numbers don’t make the case for sponsoring every conference on the calendar. Instead, the data shows that it’s essential to secure a genuine sponsorship presence at the shows that matter, put key opinion leaders on stage instead of a logo on a banner, and build owned events around the highest-value conferences. Once you are in front of an account, the message matters as much as the channel. OR turnover time (48%), supply cost per case (45%) and profitability per case (38%) top the list of metrics ASCs use to judge vendors, ahead of most clinical measures alone.

4. Build a Key-Account Strategy For a Consolidating Buyer

84% of ASC purchase decisions are collaborative and committee-based. Among multi-site operators, 63% of decisions carry corporate influence and 26% are made fully at the local level. In the past two years, 56% of large ASC groups (four or more sites) have consolidated vendors. Winning share requires engaging the corporate or committee-level buyer while also still resourcing service and support at the individual facility, similar to a key-account model for an integrated delivery network but tuned to a faster-moving, more fragmented buyer.

5. Treat AI as Commercial Infrastructure, Not an Experiment

In the fragmented ASC market, AI is quickly becoming a key productivity driver. Alexander Group research found that 64% of MedTech companies now run at least four AI use cases across sales forecasting, lead scoring and sentiment analysis. Looking forward, more than 70% of revenue leaders plan to increase RevOps investment in AI within two years, and AI-enabled lead routing is already producing a 1.5x to 2x conversion lift. Essentially, AI is moving from being an ASC differentiator to a necessity for gaining share in the market.

What This Means For Your Growth Strategy?

The ASC opportunity is large and still growing, but it will not reward a wait-and-see commercial model. The winners will win the enterprise buyer, aim investments towards data-backed accounts and specialties, solidify relationships with consolidators quickly, build capacity ahead of the growth curve and compete on margin rather than volume.

The companies gaining share will be the ones that adapt their commercial approach before the market fully moves.

[1] Market.us, US Ambulatory Surgical Center Market (2024–2034); corroborated by Health Value Group ASC sector analysis.

[2] Alexander Group, 2026 ASC Provider Study.