Becker's Spine Review

31 ASC 4 ASC, practice closures in 2022 By Patsy Newitt Here are four ASC and practice closures Becker's has covered in 2022: 1. In April, Redlands Mesa Surgery Center and Colorado Injury and Pain Specialists in Grand Junction, Colo., closed its doors. The two businesses are in a building owned by Toledo, Ohio-based Deca Health. 2. In early August, Orange County, N.Y.-based Garnet Health scrapped multiple outpatient services, citing low patient volumes, increasing costs and supply shortages. 3. Later in August, Garnet Health announced it is also closing five physician practices and laying off 29 employees. 4. The Surgery Center of Fort Collins (Colo.), which closed Aug. 12, is still working on collecting past due bills more than two months after it announced it was closing for good. n GI specialist leaves NYU Langone for Florida Gastro Group By Claire Wallace S onja Olsen, MD, a gastroenterology and hepatology specialist, has left New York City-based NYU Langone Health to join the Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital Gastro Group of the Palm Beaches. Dr. Olsen will be the area's only transplant hepatologist, joining five other GI specialists at Gastro Group. Gastro Group of the Palm Beaches partnered with Tampa General Hospital to improve gastroenterology care in the region. Dr. Olsen will see patients at TGH Gastro Group's West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens locations. "It's very inspiring to join Tampa General Hospital's expanding presence in Palm Beach County, and to help enhance the cutting-edge treatment its providers and staff offer," Dr. Olsen said in a Dec. 2 press release. n What ASCs are doing instead of consolidating By Patsy Newitt T he healthcare industry is increasingly consolidating as operation costs soar — physicians are migrating to employed models and private practices are being bought up by larger entities. Despite the consolidation, the ASC industry has remained fragmented, with independent surgery centers remaining in the majority as the driver of low costs. Seventy percent of freestanding ASCs are independently owned and operated, according to VMG Health's "Annual Healthcare M&A Report 2022." is number has remained relatively flat even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Seventy-two percent of ASCs were independent from 2020 to 2021, according to prior VMG Health reports. Additionally, it's in the best interest for payers and healthcare as a whole for ASCs to remain independent. Healthcare prices rise when ASCs and physician practices are bought by hospitals or corporate entities Physician medical groups, on the other hand, are increasingly consolidating. ere were approximately 461 deals announced in the sector in 2021, a 145 percent increase from the 2020 volume, according to the report. e ASC industry was shaped by a series of "mega-mergers" made between 2015 and 2018, according to VMG Health's report. ese mergers, however, are less common than in other sectors of healthcare. e ASC industry is instead characterized by smaller buy-ups as ASC companies opt for smaller ASC chains to amass market share quickly. Additionally, hospitals see ASCs as a major opportunity for growth, but instead of investing in existing centers, they are opting to develop ASCs internally. Many leaders predict the ASC industry will continue to consolidate to some degree. But because the industry is built on independent centers, it is unlikely that the consolidation will keep up with other sectors. n

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