Glen DeBrueys, a seasoned ASC leader and CEO of East Brunswick, N.J.-based AmericanSurgisite, recently joined Becker’s to discuss the evolution and future of ASC-hospital relationships.
Mr. DeBrueys has managed and operated ASCs since 1987, when he first launched a joint venture with 13 ophthalmologists. Within 10 years, the group had developed four surgery centers in New Jersey, which were then sold to a public company. Mr. DeBrueys eventually bought back those surgery centers and expanded the company across several states.
In 2017, “with the advent of private equity discovering ophthalmology,” according to Mr. DeBrueys, he sold one of the surgery centers to a hospital system.
“It’s been an upper deck home run,” he said. “In a nutshell, we had formed a company called Vision Centers Network of America with nine surgery centers in the New York City metropolitan area … with the prospect of gaining a seat at the table for insurance contracting.”
Securing favorable payer contracts is a top reason that ASCs seeks out hospital and health system partnerships, which was a major payoff for Mr. DeBrueys and his centers.
He currently owns and operates three centers. “[T]he best thing for surgery center owners to look for would be acquisition by the right hospital system,” he said. Finding the “right” hospital system comes down to mutual understanding of financial goals and alignment, he said.
“When they approached us, I was very leery about it,” he said. “But I went to another center that was the first center that my partner and I had developed back in ’88, and they had sold it, and I questioned the people there about it.”
While improved rates from payers was a central factor in the success of that sale, he also said that there was an understanding attitude toward learning more about the operations of ASCs.
“At the end of the day, they trusted us,” he said. “I know that everybody’s happy with the way we run the business.” He attributes this to the proven efficiency of his ASCs and a cultural alignment between his centers and the hospital.
“It doesn’t mean that if you sell to a hospital system, it’s going to turn out this way. It really has everything to do with the quality of their contracts,” he said. “And I think their culture, as it turns out, is similar to ours.”