While outpatient surgery volumes have been declining for a while at HCA Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: HCA), a novel factor fueling that trend has been people dropping out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges. “We’ve seen some volume declines in outpatient surgeries for a number of quarters,” Chris Wyatt, senior vice president and controller for HCA, said at the RBC 2026 Global Healthcare Conference on May 20. “I think we had maybe one quarter of growth last year.” Wyatt said that Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA’s surgical revenue growth has been solid over the last several quarters, but payer-mix and acuity changes have driven the volume declines. During his fireside chat with RBC Research analyst Ben Hendrix, Wyatt also shared more details about HCA’s M&A strategy.
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Source: https://ascnews.com/2026/05/hca-executive-aca-exchange-exodus-dented-outpatient-surgery-volumes/