U.S. Anesthesia Partners and the Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement in principle on April 23 to resolve a landmark antitrust case that accused USAP of buying up nearly every large anesthesia practice in Texas to create a single dominant…
Patsy Newitt
Ascension has completed its $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg, expanding the St. Louis-based health system’s ASC network to more than 300 centers nationwide, according to a June 4 news release, but not before the Federal Trade Commission required the divestiture…
The HHS Office of Inspector General issued an unfavorable advisory opinion this month, concluding that an orthopedic device company’s plan to pay physician consultants royalties tied to product-line revenue posed a heightened risk under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. Here are…
Matrix Medical Network, a Nashville, Tenn.-based health services company that conducts in-home assessments for Medicare Advantage patients, has agreed to pay $36.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations of generating false and invalid diagnoses to artificially inflate risk adjustment…
A proposed CMS rule published in May would reduce Medicaid spending by more than $775 billion over 10 years, a figure that has dominated hospital finance conversations for weeks. Although Medicaid populations skew toward hospital-based care, and most ASC payer…
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Ascension’s $3.9 billion acquisition of Amsurg is cleared to close, but only after the St. Louis-based health system parts ways with seven ASCs the Federal Trade Commission says would otherwise leave patients in five markets with less competition and higher…
A California state appellate court is set to hear arguments in a lawsuit brought by a fertility practice physician who said a private equity-backed management services organization fired him after he refused to dismiss an employee physician. According to the…
The Stark law has been on the books for more than three decades, but enforcement has never been more aggressive. In 2024, seven major Stark law indictments contributed to a record-breaking 979 qui tam lawsuits, with False Claims Act settlements…
ASCs generated $27.9 billion in Medicare savings between 2019 and 2024, according to KNG Health Consulting data prepared for the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association. The federal government’s response has been to keep cutting what it pays them. Federal policy has…
A Tennessee nurse practitioner has been convicted of illegally prescribing nearly a million opioid pills to almost 1,000 patients at a rural pain clinic, the Justice Department said in a June 2 news release. Heather Marks, of Murfreesboro, prescribed oxycodone…