While medical advancements enable ASC staff to achieve more with fewer resources, they come with their own set of challenges.

Hospitals are increasingly looking to ASCs as procedures migrate to the outpatient setting. 

The number of employed physicians is skyrocketing, and many leaders are concerned about how this workforce evolution will affect care quality.

Around 77% of physicians have shifted away from independent practice and into employed models over the last decade, but some are unhappy with employment and are pivoting back to private practice. 

A California bill will go into effect Oct. 16 requiring healthcare facilities, including ASCs, to meet certain wage requirements, law firm Buchalter wrote in JDSupra. 

Physician practice ownership has been declining for decades. In 2022, just 44% of physicians owned their practices, compared with 76% in the early 1980s, according to a report from the American Medical Association.

Four physicians joined Becker's to discuss what's making them the most hopeful about the future of medicine.

From consolidation to increases in workloads, five physicians joined Becker's to discuss what's scaring them the most about the future of medicine. 

The growing influence of nonclinical actors in healthcare has sparked concerns among physicians, as many feel that their autonomy has been significantly eroded over the past few decades. 

Physicians are interested in leadership roles, but many do not have the business skills to support that ambition. 

The combined net worth of the five richest physician billionaires is $45.1 billion, according to Forbes' net worth tracker. 

Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare is one of the largest ASC operators in the country through HCA Surgery Ventures. 

Physicians working in hospital-owned practices are nearly three times more likely to report dissatisfaction compared to those in physician-owned practices, according to consulting firm Bain & Company’s Frontline of Healthcare Survey, highlighted in an October blog post. 

Here are the CEO and CFOs of the five biggest ASC chains:

Heather Cianfrocco, CEO of Optum, was named on Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" list.

Private practice physicians are facing mounting challenges threatening financial stability and ability to provide care. 

The former CEO of a hospital in Rockdale, Texas, has agreed to pay more than $5.3 million to resolve allegations of paying kickbacks to physicians for laboratory referrals. 

San Diego-based lab company Precision Toxicology, operating as Precision Diagnostics, agreed to pay $27 million to resolve allegations it submitted false claims for medically unnecessary urine drug tests and provided free items to physicians who referred expensive laboratory testing business to them. 

ASC leaders agree that effective leadership goes beyond managing operations, and it requires continuous learning and adaptation to stay ahead in the dynamic industry.

Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare is the parent company of United Surgical Partners International, the country's largest ASC chain.