Fort Myers, Fla.-based Lee Health has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Florida Heart Associates, an independent cardiology practice serving Southwest Florida, according to a May 21 news release. Florida Heart Associates will become a Lee Health subsidiary and…
Patsy Newitt
The Business Corner is a bimonthly column by Shakeel Ahmed, MD, CEO of St. Louis-based Atlas Surgical Group. Having spent over a quarter of a century navigating the ASC industry, I have watched our business model adapt through virtually every…
Stark law was written before the internet, EHRs or AI-driven diagnostics existed. But it is still dictating how physicians can structure financial relationships in 2026, and a growing chorus of physicians, legal experts and industry groups say it is time…
Twelve years ago, Suzi Cunningham did not pay for anesthesia coverage. Today, her ASC is on its fourth provider arrangement and still searching for one that sticks. Ms. Cunningham, administrator of Advanced Ambulatory Surgery Center in Redlands, Calif., has watched…
Major health systems are shedding hospitals and funneling the proceeds into ASCs. Tenet, Ascension and Community Health Systems have collectively divested dozens of hospitals in recent years, redirecting billions toward outpatient growth. Tenet Healthcare Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare offers perhaps the…
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Major payers are quietly cutting reimbursement by automatically adjusting the complexity codes on claims before payment clears. In the past year, Cigna, Aetna, Anthem and BCBS of Massachusetts have all launched or expanded automatic downcoding programs, algorithmically adjusting higher-complexity E/M…
Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. physicians will be sued at least once in their career, but the risk varies depending on where they practice, what they specialize in and how long they have been in medicine, according to a policy…
ASC administrators and other medical and health services managers earned a mean annual wage of approximately $140,970 in 2025, with New York topping all states at $184,960 and Georgia leading when wages are adjusted for cost of living, according to…
From new Mako installations, to Rosa knee systems, to spine robots from Globus Medical. surgical robots are rapidly arriving in ASCs. For many freestanding ASCs, the financial case remains difficult, held back by a reimbursement structure that was built for…
For independent ASCs, the economics of survival have never been more precarious. Reimbursement rates have not kept pace with inflation, staffing costs have surged and some commercial payers have effectively closed the door on negotiations. Suzi Cunningham knows this reality…