Nashville-based SurgNet, a new-to-market ASC management and development company, is struggling to grow in its home state due to complicated certificate of need laws, according to a Nov. 3 report from the Nashville Business Journal.
Tennessee is one of several states that still enforces certificate of need laws for healthcare companies looking to expand. A handful of states are moving to eliminate the laws, in moves supported by healthcare leaders and physicians alike.
While SurgNet has made two acquisitions — one in Ohio and one in Michigan — in its first two months of operation, it is struggling to do business in other states, including Tennessee.
To operate in Tennessee, they would need to partner with a hospital, according to the report.
"We would literally need a group of doctors that can't get their cases done at a local hospital or if there aren't any other surgery centers," Chase Neal, CEO and co-founder of SurgNet, told the Journal. "The barrier to entry is pretty tough. We feel because of the presence of some really strong hospitals based in Tennessee, they have a pretty strong pull when it comes to opposing anybody that wants to come in and compete with them."
While the company is currently in discussions to partner with a Nashville-based hospital system, nothing has been finalized.
SurgNet is close to making its third acquisition, also in Michigan, according to the report.