Hackensack Meridian Health and United Surgical Partners International entered into a joint venture partnership with Vanguard Surgical Center.
What you should know:
1. The Hackensack, N.J.-based health system and the Addison, Texas-based management company will help the Maywood, N.J.-based surgery center adapt to a changing reimbursement environment.
2. VSC Founding Partner Dante Implicito, MD, said the surgery center recognized the need to develop a more sustainable business model, after payers started restricting out-of-network reimbursement.
3. VSC retained an investment banking firm, The Bloom Organization, to increase the surgery center's marketability. Bloom did this by bringing in a seven-physician neurosurgery practice that had previously been unaffiliated. That move added several profitable commercial surgery cases to the ASC.
Dr. Implicito praised Bloom's efforts: "Vanguard is well positioned to grow and deal with any curveballs the health industry may throw at us for the foreseeable future."