Becker's ASC Review

14 ASC MANAGEMENT National Medical Billing Services gets private equity investment to expand business By Laura Dyrda St. Louis-based National Medical Billing Services, a revenue cycle management company, received an investment from private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners. e investment will further National Medical's growth. e company was founded in 2003 to offer revenue cycle outsourcing services to ASCs and has grown considerably since then with the ASC market. "At National Medical, we have always prided ourselves on creating significant financial value for our clients, and we recognize that the ASC market is rapidly evolving and growing because of high-acuity procedures migrating to the ASC setting," said Nader Samii, CEO of National Medical. "Given this significant shi in the market, we are thrilled to be partnering with Aqui- line because of its experience across healthcare, insurance and technology. Aquiline is the ideal partner to help us accelerate our key growth initiatives, and I look forward to working with them as we chart the next stage in our evolution." National Medical offers industry expertise, proprietary intelligent workflow technologies, best practice processes and insightful analytics and advice to improve financial results for surgery centers. Aquiline Capital Partners CEO Jeff Greenberg said his firm will work with National Medical to further enhance and expand business and operations. Caine Brothers, a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets, was the exclusive financial adviser to National Medical. Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg were legal counsel to National Medical. Ropes & Gray was legal counsel to Aquiline for the transaction. n 5 things to know on CRNA pay, practice setting By Laura Dyrda H ere are five things to know about nurse anes- thetists, based on infor- mation from the Medscape "APRN Compensation Report 2020" and Bureau of Labor Statistics' Oc- cupational Employment Statistics survey from May 2019. Medscape collected data from 391 CRNAs for its report. 1. Breakdown of work environ- ment according to data from Medscape: • Hospital inpatient care: 73 percent • Hospital-based outpatient setting or clinic: 11 percent • Non-hospital-based medical office: 4 percent • Academic setting: 2 percent • Other: 8 percent 2. Median income for full-time CRNAs grew from $188,000 in 2018 to $202,000 in 2019, accord- ing to Medscape. 3. Twenty-five percent of CRNAs are in an independent practice without a collaborating physician, according to Medscape. 4. Median income for male CRNAs is $217,000 and median income for female CRNAs is $189,000, ac- cording to Medscape. 5. Here are the states where CRNAs earn the highest annual salary, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: • Wyoming: $243,310 • Montana: $239,380 • Oregon: $234,750 • Wisconsin: $233,600 • California: $227,290 n Independent New York ASCs came together to survive during pandemic By Eric Oliver I ndependent ASCs in western New York stopped competing for volumes during the COVID-19 pandemic and united to help each other thrive, Buffalo Business First reported Feb. 4. JoAnn Vecchio, administrator of Ambulatory Surgery Center of Western New York in Amherst, said to Buffalo Business First: "It was more or less you stayed in your own lane. Everyone worked independently within their own specialty and their own surgery center parameters. Once this pandemic hit, we were all in this same place." The centers partnered to allow surgeons from other centers to perform surger- ies when elective procedures were banned in Erie County, N.Y., and worked to get staff screened and vaccinated for COVID-19, among other efforts. The partnerships helped centers develop relationships and standardize process- es around COVID-19 testing, supplies and HR sharing. Patricia Graham, administrator at Endoscopy Center of WNY of Williamsville, N.Y., said, "If we didn't have each other, this would have been a much different road. Yes, they're our competition, but we all have things we may need. It was great to have someone to lean on and share ideas." n

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