Ascension Posts Profit, Eyes Outpatient Growth
Ascension reported a net profit for the first half of its 2026 fiscal year, a turnaround driven by investment returns. The non-profit health system plans to continue investing in outpatient and ambulatory services to improve its operating performance amid ongoing financial pressures on hospitals.
- To accelerate its outpatient strategy, Ascension is in advanced talks to acquire AmSurg, an ambulatory surgery center operator with over 250 facilities, for approximately $3.9 billion. This move is part of a broader industry trend of divesting underperforming hospitals to focus on more profitable ancillary services like imaging and pharmacy. - The shift to outpatient imaging is driven by projections that advanced outpatient imaging will grow by 13-14% over the next decade, with PET scans expected to increase by 23%, ultrasound by 16%, and CT scans by 15%. This migration is also influenced by payers and employers steering patients toward lower-cost freestanding centers. - Health systems are increasingly forming joint ventures with independent diagnostic imaging centers to mitigate the loss of imaging volume from hospital settings and to provide a wider range of service options for physicians and patients. - Persistent staffing shortages are a significant challenge in radiology, with vacancy rates for CT technologists reaching an all-time high of 19.4% and MRI technologists at 17.4% in 2025. This is compounded by rising imaging volumes, which are projected to grow 3-4% annually, while the radiologist workforce expands at a slower rate. - To combat staffing shortages and improve efficiency, remote scanning is being adopted to allow experienced technologists to oversee complex procedures from a distance, guiding on-site staff and expanding training opportunities. - The FDA is rapidly clearing AI-enabled medical devices for radiology, with the number of approved tools reaching 1,039 by late 2025, accounting for nearly 80% of all approved medical AI devices. Companies like GE HealthCare and Siemens Healthineers are leading this trend. - AI applications are demonstrating significant workflow efficiencies, with some studies showing the potential to reduce the total reading workload by approximately 71% and improve reading workflow efficiency by up to 79%. AI-generated reporting has been found to be 62.82% faster than manual methods for routine low-risk cases. - Changes in Medicare reimbursement policy, such as site-neutral payment rules, are reducing the financial incentive for hospitals to own off-campus imaging centers by lowering the payment rate for services performed in these settings compared to hospital outpatient departments. For 2026, CMS has increased the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) conversion factor by 2.6% to $91.415.
