The Outpatient Surgery Access Act of 2026 modifies how Medicare pays ambulatory surgical centers, which are facilities where patients receive same-day surgical procedures. The bill requires that payment updates for these centers be aligned with payment increases for hospital outpatient departments, ensuring more consistent rate adjustments across both settings starting in 2027. It also eliminates a separate budget neutrality adjustment that was previously applied only to ambulatory surgical centers, while requiring that any overall budget neutrality calculations for outpatient services now include volume data from these centers. The legislation affects Medicare beneficiaries, ambulatory surgical centers, and hospitals by creating more uniform payment rules. No specific funding amounts are authorized in the bill, as it primarily restructures existing Medicare payment formulas.
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