Table of Contents

Key Takeaways 

  • Starting in late July 2026, Leapfrog will begin sharing public ratings for nearly 4,000 ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). 
  • ASCs that complete Survey 2.0 by June 30 control their own score. 
  • ASCs that skip the survey still get a score — based on CMS data only. 
  • U.S. News already rates 4,421 ASCs. Only 911 earned “High Performing” in 2026. 
  • Your intake and check-in workflows are where quality data starts. 
  • The right practice management software captures that data before it reaches any ratings agency. 

A Big Change Is Coming in July

In April 2026, Leapfrog Group made an announcement. Starting late July 2026, they will publish public ratings for nearly 4,000 ambulatory surgery centers. 

This has not happened before. Leapfrog has rated hospitals for years. ASCs stayed out of that process. That changes now. 

The ratings will be visible to everyone. Patients can see them. Employers can see them. Insurance payers can see them. 

Your ASC will get a score whether you take part or not. 

You Have Two Choices, and One Has a Deadline

Leapfrog Survey 2.0 is currently open, with submissions due by June 30, 2026 

If your ASC submits by June 30, you provide your own data. You show your safety steps. You document your outcomes. You control the story. 

If your ASC does not submit, Leapfrog still gives you a score. They use CMS claims data and ASCQR data. You get a public score, with no say in it. 

Every ASC leader has to choose, and that decision has to be made before June 30. 

What Leapfrog Looks At

Leapfrog Survey 2.0 covers a few key areas: 

  • Infection prevention — hand hygiene, antibiotic steps, sterile technique 
  • Safe surgery practices — time-outs, checklists, wrong-site prevention 
  • Patient safety culture — staff reporting systems, leadership accountability 
  • Medication and anesthesia safety — adverse drug event steps 
  • ASCQR quality measures — complications, patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes 

That last point matters most.  

ASCQR (Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting) is a CMS program. ASCs that take Medicare patients have already reported to it. This is the base data Leapfrog uses when you do not self-report. 

If your ASCQR data has gaps, your Leapfrog score will show that. Even if your care is strong. 

U.S. News Already Started Rating ASCs. The Gap Is Growing.

Leapfrog is not the only one watching. In March 2026, U.S. News & World Report has published its 2026 Best Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) ratings. 

They rated 4,421 ASCs across four specialties: colonoscopy and endoscopy, ophthalmology, orthopedics and spine, and urology. 

Only 911 centers (21%) earned “High Performing.” In 2025, it was 17%. 

The gaps in outcomes are not small: 

  • High Performing colonoscopy centers had 26% fewer severe complications 
  • Top ophthalmology centers had 40% fewer severity-weighted complications 
  • Leading orthopedics centers had 29% fewer complications 
  • Top urology centers had 31% fewer complications 

These numbers come from 2022–2024 Medicare claims. They are public. Patients, employers, and payers use them today. 

An ASC with a “High Performing” label gets picked. An ASC with no label does not. 

Good Care Does Not Always Show Up in Ratings. Here Is Why.

This is a hard truth. Your center may deliver great care. Complication rates are low. Patients are happy. Staff follow every step. 

But your ratings may not show that. 

Why? Because the data was never captured in a way the ratings programs can read. 

Ratings only score what they can measure. They measure clean, structured data. That data comes from ASCQR reports, claims records, patient surveys, and survey responses. 

If your documentation is spread across systems, intake in one place, notes in another, and quality measures built by hand each quarter, there are gaps. Not because of bad care. Because the tools were not set up to capture it right. 

Your practice management software is where this problem starts or ends. It touches intake, check-in, pre-procedure steps, and post-visit data. If that tool does not capture clean data, your ratings will not match your real performance. 

How Patient Check-In Connects to Your Rating Score

Most ASC leaders think of patient check in software as a front-desk tool. It cuts wait times. It reduces paperwork. It speeds things up. 

That is all accurate, but there is more to consider. 

Check-in is where structured data collection begins. Every patient who arrives for a procedure starts a data trail. That trail feeds into your quality scores, if it is captured right. 

Here is what happens at check-in that links to ratings: 

  • Insurance eligibility and authorization — gaps here create holes in downstream documentation 
  • Pre-procedure health history — digital capture supports ASCQR patient safety measures 
  • Consent and pre-op forms — standard digital forms cut missing-data rates in ASCQR submissions 
  • Appointment communication — tied to no-show rates and case volume data 
  • Post-visit follow-up — satisfaction data and complication flags need structured outreach to be complete 

When handled correctly, each step generates the data required for ASCQR. And ASCQR data is what Leapfrog and U.S. News use to score your center. 

CERTIFY Health is a unified medical practice software that includes practice management software at its core. 

CERTIFY Health captures structured, ASCQR-ready data at patient intake, check-in, and follow-up, so quality measures like complications, safety steps, and outcomes are recorded correctly from the start. 

This data flows directly into ASCQR reporting and Leapfrog Survey 2.0, so your June 30 submission is complete, accurate, and fully reportable. 

What ASCs That Are Ready Have in Common

Some ASCs are already prepared for June 30. They are not scrambling. They pull from data that already lives in their systems.

What Do They Do Differently?

1. They Capture Structured DataAtCheck-in  

Pre-procedure forms and patient history are captured digitally. The data is clean and easy to access. It feeds ASCQR without manual export. CERTIFY Health’s patient intake software makes this easy. 

2. They Track ASCQR Measures Every Day

They do not wait until the end of the quarter to reconcile. Infection prevention, patient outcomes, and satisfaction measures are tracked as part of normal daily work. 

3. They Have Complete Post-Visit Records 

Complication rates and follow-up data do not appear by themselves. They need a workflow built into every case. CERTIFY Health’s practice management software builds that in by default. 

4. Their ClinicalandQuality Teams Share the Same Data  

In many ASCs, clinical work and quality reporting run on separate systems. Reporting becomes a project, not a process. One shared platform removes that problem. 

This Is a Market Differentiation Window

This is not just a compliance deadline. It is a chance to pull ahead. 

Until now, ASCs had few ways to show quality in public. Most patients chose a facility based on their surgeon, location, or insurance. That is still true. But it is shifting. 

U.S. News now publicly ranks ASCs in four specialty areas. Leapfrog adds a second public layer in July. Employers are already using these ratings when they direct patients to surgical facilities. 

ASCs with strong scores in both programs get a clear, public quality story. That helps in payer talks. It helps with patient outreach. It helps in recruiting surgeons. 

ASCs with default CMS-only Leapfrog scores have no quality story to tell publicly. 

The window to shape your July rating is the next eight weeks. 

What to Do Right Now

Here are five steps to take this week: 

  1. Check your Leapfrog Survey 2.0 status. If you have not started, go to the Leapfrog portal today. June 30 is the cutoff. 
  2. Pull your ASCQR submission records. Look for measures with missing or thin data. Those gaps feed directly into your Leapfrog score. 
  3. Review your intake and check-in workflows. Ask if pre-procedure and post-visit data is captured in a structured, consistent way, or held together by manual steps and paper forms. 
  4. Check your U.S. News status. If your center does colonoscopy, ophthalmology, orthopedics, or urology, confirm whether you were rated and what your designation is. 
  5. Ask if your practice management software is producing reportable quality data. If data capture is manual or fragmented, that is now a competitive problem, not just an operational one. 

What This Means for the ASC Industry

The U.S. News expansion and the Leapfrog public ratings launch mark a turning point. For the first time, ambulatory surgery centers face the kind of public quality scrutiny that hospitals have had for years. 

The ASCs that do well are not always the biggest or best-funded. They are the ones whose daily workflows produce clean, complete, reportable data. Not as a separate project. As a natural output of normal work. 

That starts with how patients are checked in. It runs through how procedures are documented. It ends with how data is sent to ASCQR. 

Practice management software determines whether your data is usable for reporting. CERTIFY Health captures structured data through intake, check-in, and documentation workflows, so ASCQR and Leapfrog reporting reflect your true performance. 

Schedule an operations assessment to ensure your ASCQR reporting is complete and Leapfrog-ready before June 30th.