Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1503164
18 ASC 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 10 private equity giants behind the ASC industry By Patsy Newitt P rivate equity has seen a huge growth opportunity in the ASC industry and the specialties the facilities offer, including gastroenterology and ophthalmology. Here are 10 major ASC-related organizations that are backed by private equity: 1. AmSurg Private equity partner: KKR KKR acquired Envision, AmSurg's parent company, in October 2018 for $9.9 billion. 2. Compass Surgical Partners Private equity partner: Health Velocity Capital In March 2022, Compass Surgical Partners secured a minority investment by Health Velocity Capital. 3. Covenant Physician Partners Private equity partner: KKR KKR acquired Covenant Physician Partners, formerly Covenant Surgical Partners, in 2017. 4. EyeCare Partners Private equity partner: Partners Group Partners Group acquired EyeCare Partners in 2019. 5. Gastro Health Private equity partner: Omers In 2021, Gastro Health was sold to private equity company Omers. 6. GI Alliance Private equity partner: Apollo Hybrid In September, GI Alliance finalized its physician-led buyout facilitated by a $785 million investment from private equity firm Apollo Hybrid Value. 7. Healthcare Outcomes Performance Co. Private equity partner: Audax, Linden, and Frazier HOPCo is a musculoskeletal practice management and value-based care platform backed by Audax. 8. PE GI Solutions Private equity partner: Kelso Kelso acquired PE GI, formerly Physicians Endoscopy, in 2016. 9. Surgery Partners Private equity partner: Bain Capital Private Equity Surgery Partners snagged an $800 million equity offering in November. Bain Capital Private Equity participated with $225 million of the raise. 10. ValueHealth Private equity partner: Bryant Park Capital Bryant Park Capital recently advised ValueHealth on its partnership with Surgery Partners. n