Hospitals and surgery centers offer different capabilities and specialties, and the outpatient surgical procedures performed at each type of facility vary significantly.
What are outpatient surgeries?
Outpatient surgeries are surgical procedures that can be performed on a patient without requiring an overnight stay at a hospital or other medical facility. Like other kinds of outpatient care, these procedures may be performed in a variety of settings, including primary care clinics, community health centers, urgent care centers, hospitals, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs).
Outpatient procedures are increasingly being performed in ASCs due to reduced costs related to staffing, upkeep, and overhead.
Using data from the Atlas All-Payor Claims Dataset, we’ve compiled lists of the most common outpatient surgical procedures performed at hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers.
Top 10 most common outpatient procedures at hospitals
Rank | HCPCS/CPT code | Description | % total outpatient surgeries at hospitals in 2025 |
1 | 43239 | EGD biopsy, single/multiple | 5.43% |
2 | 45385 | Colonoscopy w/lesion removal | 4.27% |
3 | 45380 | Colonoscopy and biopsy | 3.92% |
4 | 20610 | Drain/injection in joint/bursa w/o US | 3.31% |
5 | 45378 | Diagnostic colonoscopy | 1.93% |
6 | 27447 | Total knee arthroplasty | 1.72% |
7 | 66984 | Extracapsular cataract removal w/o ECP | 1.70% |
8 | 93458 | Left heart artery/ventricle angiography | 1.28% |
9 | 49083 | Abdominal paracentesis w/ imaging | 1.03% |
10 | 27130 | Total hip arthroplasty | 1.00% |
Fig. 1 Data is from Definitive Healthcare’s Atlas All-Payer Claims product and represents outpatient surgical procedures performed at hospitals in 2024, the most recent full year available. Claims data is sourced from multiple medical claims clearinghouses in the United States. Data accessed June 2025.
Top 10 most common outpatient procedures at surgery centers
Rank | HCPCS/CPT code | Description | % of total outpatient surgeries at surgery centers in 2024 |
1 | 45385 | Colonoscopy w/ lesion removal | 11.50% |
2 | 43239 | EGD biopsy, single/multiple | 11.21% |
3 | 66984 | Extracapsular cataract removal w/o ECP | 10.92% |
4 | 45380 | Colonoscopy and biopsy | 10.15% |
5 | 45378 | Diagnostic colonoscopy | 5.77% |
6 | G0121 | Colon cancer screen, not high-risk individual | 1.83% |
7 | G0105 | Colorectal screen; high-risk individual | 1.77% |
8 | 66821 | After cataract laser surgery | 1.63% |
9 | 64635 | Destroy lumbar/sacral facet joint | 1.26% |
10 | 69436 | Create eardrum opening | 1.13% |
Fig. 2 Data is from the Atlas All-Payor Claims Dataset and represents outpatient surgical procedures performed at surgery centers in 2024, the most recent full year available. Claims data is sourced from the Ambulatory Surgery Center Limited Data Set, released each January by CMS. Data accessed June 2025.
What is the most common outpatient surgery?
At hospitals, esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) with biopsy is the most common outpatient surgical procedure, representing 5.43% of all outpatient procedures. The next most common outpatient procedure at hospitals is colonoscopy with lesion removal, with 4.27% of procedures.
Colonoscopy with lesion removal is also the most common outpatient surgery at ambulatory surgery centers, representing 11.5% of outpatient surgical procedures. EGDs are the second most common outpatient procedures at ASCs, representing about 11.21% of procedures.
Colonoscopies are very common at both facilities and are among the priciest outpatient procedures for patients paying out of pocket, according to our data. Procedures within the colonoscopy subservice line account for 12.48% of hospital outpatient procedures and 32.06% of ASC outpatient procedures.
Looking at service lines more broadly, gastroenterology/digestive disease procedures lead overall outpatient volumes at both facilities, representing 29.12% of hospital outpatient procedures and 48.26% of ASC outpatient procedures. Orthopedic service lines have the second-highest procedure volume at hospitals (15.06%) and the third-highest volume at ASCs (13.2%).
The ophthalmology service line has the second-highest volume of all ASC outpatient procedures, representing 18.15% of procedures at those facilities. Ophthalmology only accounts for 4.32% of hospital outpatient procedures.
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