About 66 percent of surgery centers are wholly owned by physicians, with the rest of the market owned solely or in collaboration with hospitals and corporations, according to a June report from Definitive Healthcare.
Five ASC industry notes:
1. Monthly ASC claims increased 47.1 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to an April report from Definitive Healthcare. Surgery centers saw 1.5 million average claims a month in 2020 compared to 2.2 million per month in 2021.
2. Envision Healthcare has 720 operating rooms, the most of any ASC corporation surveyed by Definitive Healthcare, and reports more than $266 million in Medicare charges. The following are the five largest ASC companies by number of operating rooms:
- Envision Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.): 720 operating rooms
- HCA Surgery Center Division (Nashville): 693 operating rooms
- SurgCenter Development (Towson, Md.): 225 operating rooms
- Physicians Endoscopy (Jamison, Pa.): 186 operating rooms
- Covenant Physician Partners (Nashville): 145 operating rooms
3. More than 4,500 physicians joined three of the largest ASC chains in 2021, with Dallas-based United Surgical Partners International, a subsidiary of Tenet Healthcare, further pulling ahead of its competitors both in terms of the number of physicians and surgery centers. Here are the largest ASC chains by the number of affiliated physicians:
- United Surgical Partners International (Dallas): 11,000+
- Surgical Care Affiliates (Deerfield, Ill.): 8,500
- Surgery Partners (Brentwood, Tenn.): 4,000
- HCA Healthcare (Nashville): 3,200
- ValueHealth (Leawood, Kan.): 3,000
- SurgCenter Development (Towson, Md.): 2,500
- AmSurg (Nashville): 2,000
- Covenant Physician Partners (Nashville): 1,735
4. The top five musculoskeletal procedures with the highest volumes in 2021, followed by total number of procedures, are:
- Drain/injection major joint/bursa without ultrasound: 5,020,496
- Injection tendon sheath/ligament: 973,442
- Drain/injection joint/bursa with ultrasound: 908,671
- Total knee arthroplasty: 600,266
- Inject trigger points on three or more muscles: 533,225
5. The top five physician specialties by average annual charges, followed by charges per provider, are:
- Nephrology: $42,982,704
- Cardiac electrophysiology: $5,568,993
- Hematology/oncology: $5,037,403
- Medical oncology: $4,400,226
- Radiation oncology: $4,217,590