The ASC market is expected to be Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare's main growth driver in the coming years, with the company's surgery center business, United Surgical Partners International, aiming to have 575 to 600 ASCs by the end of 2025.
Eight things to know:
1. USPI has about a 7 percent share of the ASC market, with 410 surgery centers and 24 surgical hospitals across 34 states, CEO Saum Sutaria, MD, said during a July 22 earnings call. The company aims to acquire 77 to 90 ASCs through 2025, develop 30 to 40 new centers in partnership with Towson, Md.-based SurgCenter Development, and develop another 32 ASCs with physicians.
2. As more services and procedures shift to the outpatient environment, Tenet has been bolstering its ASC business to drive revenue. It has spent more than $2.5 billion in capital investment to scale USPI since December 2020 and expects to see 12 percent growth in 2022 after acquiring interest in about 160 ASCs in less than two years, company executives said in a February earnings call. USPI expects 2022 net operating revenue to rise to $3.2 billion or $3.3 billion, with surgical cases increasing 3 percent to 4 percent year over year.
3. At the end of June, Tenet acquired Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health's 5 percent equity position in USPI to own 100 percent of the company's voting shares, Dr. Sutaria said.
4. Other recent USPI acquisitions include a $1.1 billion deal to buy SurgCenter Development — adding 85 ASCs to its network — and another $78 million paid to acquire ownership of eight Compass Surgical Partners ASCs.
5. USPI agreed to form a joint venture partnership in 22 ASCs with Owings Mills, Md.-based United Urology Group. The company will acquire a portion of UUG's ownership interests in its established and new surgery centers in Maryland, Colorado and Arizona, adding more than 140 urologists to USPI's network. The deal is expected to close this quarter.
6. USPI partnered with Centura Mercy Hospital and local physicians to build an ASC in Durango, Colo. The surgery center will feature three operating rooms and offer services that include spine surgery, orthopedic surgery, pain management and gastroenterology.
7. More than 3,400 physicians joined USPI in 2021, increasing the number of physicians in the company's network to more than 11,000, the most of any ASC chain.
8. USPI has more than 20,000 employees and serves 1.5 million patients a year, according to its website.