ASC Cost Control: Proven Strategies for Managing Labor and Supply Pressures in 2025
Rising labor and supply costs are threatening ASC profitability. Learn proven strategies from CCA's VP of Finance for controlling costs while maintaining quality in today's challenging environment.
Rising costs are becoming an inescapable reality across the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) landscape. Whether it’s higher wages for surgical staff, increased stipends for anesthesia coverage, or inflationary pressure on medical supplies, the traditional ASC margin model is under siege. As the VP of Finance for a growing network of cardiovascular ASCs, I’ve seen firsthand how these cost pressures can destabilize operations if not addressed head-on.
Here’s how we’re thinking about it — and what other ASC leaders might consider doing to stay ahead of the curve.
Key Strategies for ASC Cost Control
1. Labor Costs: You Can’t Save Your Way to Competitiveness
The days of squeezing labor to protect the bottom line are over. We’re competing for highly skilled nurses and techs in a tight labor market — and that’s before we factor in the need for anesthesia coverage, which has become both more expensive and harder to secure.
Rather than reacting with across-the-board cost-cutting, we’ve focused on:
- Optimizing case scheduling to ensure our teams are working at or near capacity during their contracted hours.
- Incentivizing clinical leaders with performance-based bonuses tied to revenue or utilization.
- Outsourcing selectively — especially for non-core roles like billing or prior auth coordination — to reduce overhead and redeploy talent where it matters most.
2. Supply Costs: Reining in a Growing Line Item
Medical supplies account for 30–40% of ASC revenue in many centers — a staggering figure when reimbursement is flat or declining.
Our approach at CCA includes:
- Centralized purchasing: We’ve created a shared services entity to negotiate pricing on behalf of all centers, passing through a small markup to maintain transparency and alignment.
- Vendor standardization: Instead of allowing every surgeon to order their preferred items, we collaborate with clinical leaders to standardize on implants and disposables whenever possible.
- Tighter inventory management: Through ENVI and regular cycle counts, we’re minimizing overstock and reducing waste. Every unopened, expired box of sutures is literally money in the trash.
3. The Role of Transparency and Accountability
One of the most powerful tools in our arsenal is data.
We’ve begun producing monthly reports by center that clearly outline:
- Cost per case
- Case mix and average reimbursement
- Variance against budget for both labor and supplies
By making this information accessible — and tying portions of incentive comp to performance — we’re seeing a cultural shift. Administrators, schedulers, and even clinical staff are more engaged in finding ways to increase efficiency and lower costs without sacrificing patient care.
Closing Thoughts
ASCs will always have an economic edge over hospitals. But if we let rising costs erode that advantage, we lose the very thing that makes this model sustainable. In a flat reimbursement environment, we need to be aggressive, creative, and collaborative in how we manage labor and supply costs.
At CCA, we’re committed to staying lean, nimble, and aligned — because clinical excellence alone isn’t enough. Financial discipline has to be part of the conversation too.