Here are five ASC leaders’ recent thoughts on the increasingly consolidated physician and ASC landscape:
Janet Calson. Executive Director of Commonwealth Pain & Spine: Consolidation is driving up healthcare costs. It gives large health systems monopolies. Physicians are forced to refer within the system, making it harder to refer outside. All testing and imaging gets done within the system, and follow-up is limited to their physicians.
Scott Mayer. CEO of Ambulatory Anesthesia Care (Rosemont, Ill.): There’s a lot of physicians and healthcare workers in general that are trying to gain back some autonomy, some control, some freedom. The consolidators just keep getting bigger, whether it comes to platforms or health systems, it’s definitely becoming more corporate. That’s forced a lot of [providers] — especially on the anesthesia side — to be their own independent contractors.
Shobhit Minhas, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon at Fox Valley Orthopedics (Geneva, Ill.): Because of the high costs of everything, there’s usually a very significant buy-in required for younger physicians to become partners in private practice. I don’t know the specifics of different practices, but sometimes the buy-in can range from half a million to almost a million and a half dollars, depending on how big the practice is. That’s an initial barrier, because very few younger physicians have that kind of money right out of medical school — especially with the amount of debt. So I think the financial restraints are probably the number one factor for physicians, unless they get lucky or the buy-in is relatively small.
Bethwel Raore, MD. Neurosurgeon at Apex Spine and Neurosurgery (Duluth, Ga.): I believe the most disruptive force in physician consolidation today is the rise of private equity. Their aggressive acquisition strategies and emphasis on short-term profitability are fundamentally reshaping the healthcare landscape — often prioritizing financial performance over long-term clinical value.
Benjamin Stein, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon and Chairman of Capital Surgical Solutions: I think consolidation will continue to lead to more facilities being shuttered over time, especially in markets where there’s too much overlap. When you have too many facilities in a specific geography, it becomes hard for any of them to function well, and some will inevitably close.”
