Becker's ASC Review

6 ASC MANAGEMENT American Physician Partners closing: What ASCs need to know By Patsy Newitt Medical staffing company American Physician Partners is closing and will transition to its hospital contracts. Here is what ASCs need to know: 1. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based company is another physician staffing company to face economic distress following the implementation of the No Surprises Act. Earlier in 2023, Envision filed for bankruptcy, citing the No Surprises Act as a factor. 2. American Physician Partners provided services to more than 150 hospitals and health systems organizations in 18 states. 3. S&P Global Ratings downgraded APP Holdco, the parent company of American Physician Partners, to "CCC-" in 2021 after it pulled its $520 million term loan deal. S&P said the downgrade reflected the view that near-term default risk is high, with about $472 million in debt due in one week. n Physicians could be in financial danger with this Stark law change By Patsy Newitt P hysician groups who provide certain medical equipment, devices and supplies to their Medicare patients could be in violation of Stark law following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, attorneys from law firm Epstein Becker & Green wrote in an Aug. 14 JDSupra article. During the emergency, which ended May 11, CMS issued temporary waivers. One was to waive the location requirement of the in-office ancillary services exception, which allowed physician groups to provide home delivery for some equipment, including intermittent urinary catheters, to Medicare patients without Stark law sanctions. With the end of the PHE, however, the waiver ended, meaning Medicare beneficiaries must come to the practice's office to pick up their durable medical equipment when they are furnished and billed by physicians. Physician practices can still mail the equipment if the prescribing physician both personally enrolls as a Medicare durable medical equipment supplier and personally performs all the services related to the equipment. e authors of the article specified that they are not aware of any physician who meets both of these standards, however. n Optum undergoes layoffs: What ASCs should know By Riz Hatton U nitedHealth Group's Optum and its subsidiaries have recently laid off employees and cut services at one of its subsidiary's clinics. Here are three things ASC leaders should know: 1. No UnitedHealth companies have filed WARN documents with state regulators in August. However, several former employees from Optum subsidiaries have posted on social media that they have been laid off. 2. Optum subsidiary MedExpress Urgent Care is cutting nursing positions at nearly 150 locations "in an effort to revamp its staffing model," according to an Aug. 11 article from ABC affiliate WTAE. 3. USMD Fort Worth Clearfork Clinic in Texas is closing its medical oncology, rheumatology and general surgery services, according to a spokesperson for USMD's parent company, WellMed Medical Management, which is part of Optum, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "USMD recently made a decision to refocus our mission on providing high-quality care in the communities we serve. Unfortunately this means that we will be transitioning out of some specialty medicine practices over the next several weeks," spokesman Daniel Calderon said in an emailed statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. n

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