While the financial headwinds battering healthcare are not new, some independent physician groups are blazing their own trail out of penury and debt toward financial solvency. Three recent cases map the emerging playbook for physician practice distress resolution. Here’s a…
Patsy Newitt
Certified registered nurse anesthetists now earn an average of $288,441 annually, up from $181,000 in 2019, according to Marit Health peer-reported salary data and AANA’s 2026 compensation report. This 59% increase has outpaced anesthesiologist pay growth at nearly twice the…
At most ASCs, anesthesia and OR leadership operate in parallel that involves coordinating on clinical matters but rarely sitting down together to make operational decisions. With scheduling operating in a silo, oftentimes ASCs end up running three separate optimization processes…
A former Brookline, Mass. physician has been sentenced to 58 months in prison for healthcare fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, the Justice Department said in a June 8 news release. Pankaj Merchia, MD, 52, was convicted in January 2026…
Anesthesia providers are caught between rising compensation expectations and a payer environment that keeps narrowing what they can collect. For ASCs, the math is getting harder to ignore. Here are 10 numbers illustrating the crisis: $20.44. The CMS anesthesia conversion…
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In 2022, Ascension ran 139 hospitals and was losing nearly $2 billion a year. By June 2026, it operated 90 hospitals and more than 300 ASCs. The $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg was the final move in a significant strategic…
A recent 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling clarified how federal prosecutors are able to charge physicians and executives for false statements in healthcare fraud cases, according to a blog post from law firm Armstrong Bradylyons. The case involved an…
HST Pathways, a cloud-based software provider for ASCs, has secured a strategic growth investment from Novo Holdings, joining existing investors Bain Capital and Nexxus Holdings, according to a June 5 news release. The investment will support the acceleration of HST’s…
Jon Van Valkenburg has been appointed as the first representative of freestanding ASCs on the New York State Public Health and Health Planning Council, according to a June 8 news release from the New York State Association of Ambulatory Surgery…
The Erlanger Health System Stark law case is in active litigation, and the compliance implications for physician groups, health systems and ASCs are significant. Here is where things stand and why it matters. The background Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Erlanger Health System…