Data That Matters: ‘2025 Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers’ Released

Second ASC ratings by U.S. News & World Report include notable changes.

U.S. News & World Report just released its 2025 Best Ambulatory Surgery Center ratings, the second annual edition of an ASC ratings initiative that is based on risk-adjusted, objective outcomes such as post-procedure complications, emergency department visits, unplanned inpatient admissions and other undesirable results.

The report evaluated ASCs in four specialties:

• Colonoscopy & Endoscopy;
• Ophthalmology;
• Orthopedics & Spine; and
• Urology.

Process improvements

This time around, however, the ASC ratings include a number of methodological refinements aimed at increasing patient population homogeneity and improving outcome representativeness.

“The significance of the second year of U.S. News’ Best Ambulatory Surgery Center ratings lies in our ability to build upon the foundation of our inaugural ratings,” says Chelsey Wen, senior health data analyst at the media company. “By implementing targeted methodological changes, such as focusing on key surgical orthopedic and spine procedures and enhancing the homogeneity of risk in ophthalmology, we’re providing consumers with an even more accurate and meaningful assessment of high-quality outpatient care.

“The significance of year two is also about the industry impact,” adds Ms. Wen. “We’re seeing ASC operators leverage U.S. News data to identify areas for improvement.”

Specifically, the changes include:

• Common pain procedures not ranked. Centers that did not perform key surgical orthopedic and/or spine operations for traditional Medicare beneficiaries were not rated in Orthopedics & Spine in 2025.

Reason for the change: Pain centers and certain ASCs that performed injections for back pain — but did not provide surgical care — received ratings in this specialty last year. Because these facilities have a lower-risk, lower-complexity case mix, they were not evaluated against ASCs offering more comprehensive orthopedic and spine care. Approximately 800 ambulatory facilities that received an Orthopedic & Spine rating last year weren’t rated in this specialty in 2025.

• Ophthalmology procedure removal. Secondary membranous cataract surgery, a minimally invasive procedure also known as posterior capsulotomy or YAG laser capsulotomy, was removed from the procedures evaluated in the Ophthalmology category of the 2025 ratings.

Reason for the change: This change stemmed directly from expert feedback and because this minimally invasive procedure has lower risk than other surgical procedures evaluated in the Ophthalmology specialty rating.

• ER visit measure cut from Ophthalmology. In 2025, the emergency department visit outcome measure was not used to evaluate ASCs in Ophthalmology.

Reason for the change: For some patients in the specialty, U.S. News & World Report could not determine if an ED visit occurred soon after their surgery. As a result, the Ophthalmology ratings in the 2025 edition were based primarily on performance on cost of complications, including expenses from emergency department visits.

It’s also worth noting that in each specialty, a small share of ASCs did not receive a rating because of data availability issues. Specifically, if U.S. News & World Report could not determine at least one of the evaluated outcomes in Ophthalmology, or at least two of the outcomes in other specialties for a majority of the ASC’s traditional Medicare patients, the center did not receive a rating in that specialty. OSM