The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are launching a health care advisory committee, giving surgery centers a new platform to showcase their strategic value.
Moving forward, the committee will deliver recommendations directly to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Specifically, the committee will be tasked with advising on how care is financed and delivered across Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Health Insurance Marketplace. Presumably, a focus for committee members will be lowering health care costs and improving patient outcomes – two major advantages that ASCs offer.
In an announcement earlier this month, officials additionally said the body will focus on reducing administrative barriers, advancing real-time data systems, and strengthening quality and accountability standards in government health programs.
“Every American [deserves] high-quality, affordable care – without red tape, corporate greed, or excessive costs,” Kennedy said in the announcement. “This new advisory committee will unite the best minds in health care to help us deliver real results, hold the system accountable and drive forward our mission to Make America Healthy Again.”
Oz added that the committee will target inefficiencies in CMS programs and expand preventive care.
“This is a moment for action,” Oz said. “This committee will help us cut waste, reduce paperwork, expand preventive care, and modernize CMS programs with real-time data and accountability, all while keeping patients at the center.”
For the ASC sector, the creation of this committee signals an opportunity to influence federal policymaking at a pivotal time.
ASCs play a growing role in Medicare and Medicaid as payers continue to shift procedures away from inpatient hospitals and toward lower-cost, outpatient settings.
What’s more, many of the committee’s stated priorities – streamlining red tape, modernizing payment models and developing real-time data systems – overlap with the issues ASC operators have long pressed regulators to address.
The inclusion of voices from the ASC landscape will likely be critical if the committee is to capture the full spectrum of patient care.
Medicare and commercial insurers have increasingly embraced surgery centers as cost-saving alternatives, yet federal regulatory frameworks often lag behind clinical and market realities.
CMS is accepting nominations for committee members, encouraging individuals with expertise in chronic disease prevention, health care financing and delivery system reform to apply. Members are expected to be selected later this year.
Committee deliverables will include policy initiatives to promote chronic disease management, proposals for regulatory frameworks that reduce unnecessary burdens, levers to support real-time data infrastructure, and strategies to improve Medicaid quality and Medicare Advantage sustainability.
The submission window will be open under Sept. 22. More information, including instructions for how to submit or nominate an individual for the committee, can be found here.
