ASC News

Cape Girardeau, Mo.-based Saint Francis Healthcare System is closing a Missouri surgery center.

Here are five controversies involving ASC closures, lawsuits or opposition that Becker's has reported on since April 10:

A Cedar Grove, N.J.-based physician was sentenced to 26 months in prison for a $1.3 million healthcare fraud scheme targeting Amtrak. 

U.S. News & World Report has rated ambulatory surgery centers for the first time this year after decades of rating acute care hospitals across the nation, and surgery center leaders can now preview their results.

There are 34 billionaires in the U.S. who made their wealth in healthcare ventures, according to Forbes' annual list of the richest people in the world. 

ASCs and other small businesses have struggled to stay afloat amid rising practice costs, staffing shortages and reimbursement declines. 

A man in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release and must pay $97 million for his role in a healthcare fraud and kickback scheme. 

Nashville-based Surgery Partners has 192 affiliated practices nationwide, and continues to be a major player in the ASC industry.

Robert Eyzaguirre, MD, the owner and sole physician of a medical clinic in Bellflower, Calif., pleaded guilty to submitting false claims to a Medi-Cal program.

Thirty-seven percent of physicians and advanced practice providers that work on a locum tenens basis do it as a side job on top of an additional permanant role as a clinician, according to an April report from AMN Healthcare.