Becker's ASC Review

25 TRANSACTIONS Optum's spending spree continues By Patsy Newitt U nitedHealth Group's Optum, parent company of ASC chain SCA Health, is on a spending spree, acquiring more than $10 billion worth of companies in the last year. Here are seven deals to know since July 2022: 1. Tacoma, Wash.-based Virginia Mason Franciscan Health partnered with Optum Washington, with Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle operating as the physician group's primary acute-care referral center, according to the health system. 2. is week, Optum has agreed to merge with Amedisys, a home health and hospice provider, in a $3.3 billion deal. 3. Optum acquired Middletown, N.Y.-based multispecialty group Crystal Run Healthcare effective Feb. 22. e group has more than 400 providers across more than 30 locations. 4. In February, Optum closed a $5.4 billion deal to add home health and hospice company LHC Group to Optum's network. LHC Group will join Optum with 29,000 employees and more than 950 locations across 37 states. 5. In January, Optum inked two deals. Optum partnered with Northern Light Health in Brewer, Maine, and Owensboro (Ky.) Health to take over administrative functions so the systems could focus on patient care. Around 1,400 Northern Light Health employees and 575 Owensboro Health employees are transitioning to Optum. 6. In August, Optum acquired Houston-based Kelsey-Seybold, a multispecialty physician group, for around $2 billion. Kelsey- Seybold has cancer and women's health centers, ASCs, and a sleep center. 7. In July, Optum purchased Healthcare Associates of Texas, a Dallas-based physician practice management company, for $300 million. Healthcare Associates of Texas offers family medicine, physical therapy, sleep medicine, a wellness clinic, pharmacy, and lab and imaging services. n Who is acquiring the vast majority of physician practices? By Claire Wallace P rivate equity has been the largest acquirer of private physician practices over the last five years, according to 2023 data from the American Hospital Association. Between 2019 and 2023, 65 percent of acquired physician practices were acquired by private equity. e second-most prolific acquirers were physician medical groups, which acquired 14 percent of private practices. Health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare and its subsidiary Optum, the largest employer of physicians nationwide, acquired 11 percent of practices. Hospital and health systems acquired about 6 percent of practices, while 4 percent were acquired by other services. In 2023, insurer CVS Health acquired Chicago-based Oak Street Health and Dallas-based Signify Health in deals valued at nearly $20 billion total. UHC and Optum recently acquired Middletown, N.Y.- based Crystal Run Healthcare, Houston-based Kelsey-Seybold Clinic and Newton, Mass.-based Atrius Health. n Connecticut health system acquires 2 ASCs, can't charge facility fees By Patsy Newitt H artford HealthCare has been approved to acquire two ASCs in Connecticut, the Hartford Business Journal reported May 12. The Office of Health Strategy, which approved the deal, added stipulations, including prohibiting the entities from charging facility fees at the ASCs. Hartford HealthCare had sought a certificate-of-need for the acquisition of both facilities. According to the report, the stipulation is in line with Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont's healthcare reform bill, which specifically targets facility fees. Hartford HealthCare acquired 70.6 percent of Trumbull, Conn.-based Surgery Center of Fairfield County, and 51 percent of Torrington, Conn.-based Litchfield Hills Surgery Center. n

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