Becker's ASC Review

7 ASC MANAGEMENT strategy and that is because of the nature of what we had to deal with in the past. We had to set up each ASC based upon wherever we could create a partnership with the hospital system and or management company. Post-certificate of need, that changes. We can really take control of ASCs and move them 100% into OrthoCarolina ownership. It does not mean we may not want to continue partnering with hospital systems, and or management companies, if it makes sense, but it allows us to take a patchwork of ASCs and create a comprehensive OrthoCarolina ASC strategy under OC ownership. We think that will be a better way to bring uniformity to what we are doing. Part of that vision is also to concentrate services. Some of the stuff that you do in an ASC, especially hips and spine, sometimes take 23-hour observation capability, whereas stuff that hand, foot, ankle and sports does doesn't require that. So we may have one center that's focused on hip and spine and make that a larger center that can really specialize, which will provide a better experience for patients and practitioners. We know it will take a lot of work to get from here to there. A lot of things will have to be done in regards to our legacy ASCs, and so again we look at the PT and MRI and we only have so much bandwidth. Our team needs to be able to focus on certain things. We really felt this was a deep opportunity to divest of our two ancillaries that were not a part of our core and really double down on our core business. n This state is rapidly losing independent physicians By Francesca Mathewes R ural areas of Tennessee lost hundreds of independent physicians between 2019 and 2024, according to a recent report by the Physicians Advocacy Institute. During that period, rural Tennessee lost 362 independent physicians and 344 independent medical practices. According to a June 5 report by the Tennessee Lookout, some of those physicians stopped practicing in rural areas, while others became employees of larger health systems. This falls in line with national trends that point to an increasingly consolidated physician workforce. According to a recent survey by the American Medical Association, 42.2% of physicians worked in private practice in 2024, compared with 60.1% in 2012. The number of hospital-employed physicians rose by 33% between 2013 and 2022 from around 157,000 to more than 205,000. In contrast, private practices grew by 17%, indicating hospitals are hiring at roughly double the rate, according to a report published May 13 in the Journal of the Society of Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgeons. n Physician-owned private practices decline 20% in 10 years By Claire Wallace T he number of physician-owned private practices in the U.S. has declined by nearly 20% since 2012, according to the American Medical Association's Physician Practice Benchmark Survey. e AMA surveyed 5,000 physicians who have completed residency, provide patient care for at least 20 hours per week, are not employed by the federal government and practice in one of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. As of 2024, just 42.4% of physicians work in private practice, down from 60.1% in 2012, according to the survey. Ophthalmology has the largest percentage of specialists who remain in private practice, at 70.4%, followed by orthopedic surgeons at 54%. e number of hospital-employed physicians rose 33% between 2013 and 2022 from around 157,000 to more than 205,000. In contrast, private practices grew by 17%, indicating hospitals are hiring at roughly double the rate, according to a new report published May 13 in the Journal of the Society of Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgeons. e total number of employed physicians increased by 22% over the last decade, from roughly 620,000 in 2013 to over 760,000 in 2022. One key limitation in reporting private practice ownership data, the journal notes, is the lack of publicly available information on whether private practices are physician-owned. Most ownership data come from proprietary sources, making it difficult to determine how many physicians are truly in control of their workplaces. Here are the percentage of physicians who work in private practice from 2012 to 2024, per the AMA: 2012: 60.1% 2014: 56.8% 2016: 55.8% 2018: 54% 2020: 49.1% 2022: 46.7% 2024: 42.2% n

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