The pressure from hospitals buying up ASCs and private equity pushing into the space has forced many surgery centers to consolidate.
Aaron Murski, managing director of VMG Health, Geoff Cockrell, chair of McGuire Woods' private equity group, and Barry Tanner, president and CEO of Physicians Endoscopy, discussed historical and emerging trends for ASCs leaders to know during a panel discussion at Becker's ASC 25th Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, Oct. 18-20 in Chicago.
Miami-based GastroHealth was the first gastroenterology group to attract PE, and since then, Mr. Tanner has seen at least 15 separate confidential information memorandums for gastrointestinal roll-ups come across his desk.
There are roughly 12,000 gastroenterologists practicing in the U.S., according to Mr. Tanner, with an average GI group size of four. "For the most part," he said, "gastroenterologists see their options as selling out to hospitals or turning out the lights — the days of independent practice are over."
The need to consolidate has been in the making for decades. "Increasingly, there's lot of attention on physician alignment structures," said Mr. Cockrell. "In the 1990s, there wasn't really a burning need to consolidate, but that is not the case today."
As more and more practices consolidate, Mr. Murski sees an increased incentive to bring all services under the same umbrella because of the buy-down and re-sell. "There's a greater focus on stability and income repair," he said.