Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1499344
54 TRANSACTIONS Behind Optum's physician acquisition strategy By Patsy Newitt U nitedHealth Group's Optum, parent company of ASC chain SCA Health, is on a spending spree, scooping up physician groups and expanding its portfolio. e company is now affiliated with more than 70,000 physicians, making it the largest employer of physicians in the country. Most recently, Optum snagged Middletown, N.Y.-based Crystal Run Healthcare, a multispecialty physician group with more than 400 providers. It also acquired Houston-based Kelsey- Seybold for $3 billion, Dallas-based Healthcare Associates of Texas for $300 million and Auburndale, Mass.-based Atrius Health for $236 million in the last year. e company is also looking to partner with health systems. In January, 1,400 office-based employees at Brewer, Maine-based Northern Light Health were transferred to Optum. "A lot of these health systems are looking for a new relationship or they're wondering, 'How do I make sure I'm staying an independent health system and continuing to deliver the best clinical care that I can?'" Mike Valli, president of Optum's Northeast Region, told Becker's. "Over the past specifically five to six years, we've been aggregating a ton of assets that can help enable the administrative functions of these systems. e idea behind these relationships is, really, how do we bring everything Optum has to offer for a provider system to them in one relationship?" On the ASC side, SCA Health has expanded past surgery center management into specialty care. In May, Surgical Care Affiliates rebranded to SCA Health and updated its logo to symbolize growth momentum and added a tagline: "e future of specialty care." "When I joined the organization in 2015, we were an ambulatory surgery center company singularly focused on partnering with surgeons in their ASCs," Caitlin Zulla, CEO of Optum Health's east region and former CEO of SCA Health, told Becker's in 2022. "Since then, we've evolved to support physician specialists more holistically across the specialty care continuum." With this shi, Optum and SCA Health are looking at growth not just through number of ASCs, "but the quality of care we provide, the proportion of spend in value-based care arrangements, our increased connectivity to practices and health systems, and additional ancillary services that support specialists' independence," Ms. Zulla said. is strategy is different from other ASC giants such as Dallas-based United Surgical Partners International, Tenet Healthcare's ASC arm. USPI is the company's "gem for the future," Tenet CEO Saum Sutaria, MD, said in 2022, and the company continues to rely on ASCs rather than physicians to carry the company's growth. USPI said it will pump $250 million into ASC mergers and acquisitions and plans to have more than 600 ASCs by 2025.n USPI continuing to carry Tenet's growth: 6 earnings call notes By Patsy Newitt D allas-based United Surgical Partners International is continuing to grow, with $340 million in adjusted earnings in the first quarter, according to an April 25 earnings call from Tenet, USPI's parent company, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. "The continued migration of procedural services into the ambulatory setting is a sustained and significant tailwind for our business," Tenet CEO Saum Sutaria, MD, said in the earnings call. "... Our USPI development pipeline remains active and healthy." Here are six more notes to know: 1. The company saw 7.8 percent growth in same-facility volume, which is attributed to higher acuity service line expansion and growth in the company's physician population. 2. USPI particularly saw growth in gastroenterology, urology, ENT and orthopedic cases. 3. USPI added three ASCs in the first quarter and completed two post-transaction buy-ups. 4. Surgical cases were 107 percent of prepandemic levels. 5. The company is seeing physicians coming to USPI "wanting to initiate their first orthopedics de novo work in our centers either through new center development or joining existing centers," Dr. Sutaria said, indicating demand for ASC-based orthopedics. 6. The company is seeing some pressure from the No Surprises Act, but "managing through it," Dr. Sutaria said. n OSF HealthCare acquires majority interest in Illinois ASC By Claire Wallace Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare has become the majority investor in Champaign, Ill.-based ASC Olympian Surgical Suites. Olympian's current owner, general surgeon Sid Rohrscheib, MD, will continue to be a minority owner, according to a May 5 news release from OSF HealthCare. He will also perform procedures at OSF HealthCare Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana, Ill. OSF is seeking state and regulatory approval for the joint venture. n