After spending most of 2020 grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, state legislatures in 2021 were able to dedicate more time to addressing other concerns, even though legislation related to the pandemic still featured heavily on legislative dockets. The ASC-related legislation that states considered and passed during 2021 focused on issues like surgical smoke evacuation, scope of practice for optometrists, provider taxes, price transparency, universal health insurance coverage and oversight of mergers and acquisitions of health systems.