Selling a Surgery Center
For physician owners, managing independent ASCs has become much more challenging over the past 20 years. Often times evaluating partnership opportunities can provide insight into how and what it will take to optimize the potential of their businesses and understand just how impactful the right partnership can be. For physicians this can be much more than a liquidity event, it can be about ensuring the long-term success of your business, creating the right alignment, retaining clinical autonomy, allowing you to focus on patient care, and many of the other benefits of being your own boss while getting the support required to move successfully forward.
Partners and Buyers
Today about 60% of ASCs remain independent, close to 18% are aligned with hospitals and another 15% are part of surgery center management companies, while a small percentage are part of joint ventures, private equity groups, and other investors.
The value that a partner can bring beyond a liquidity event, and we stress that means the right fit and the right cultural pairing, can be significant. Through scale and leadership expertise we find the best partnerships result in ASCs being able to better manage the demands regarding governance and compliance, recruitment and retention of physicians and staff, provide capital for growth, revenue cycle management, reimbursement and contracting, infrastructure and support services, service line expansion, marketing, and other value added services that can help a center be as successful as it can be in today ever changing healthcare environment.
Our ASC Experience
There is simply no other firm in the ASC space, or in healthcare, that has more hands-on experience than our trusted team of advisors. Every one of our senior members have spent their entire careers in outpatient healthcare, we all started in the ASC industry in the 1980’s and 1990’s, leading industry first technology and service firms and working side by side with the physicians and executives who were running the first ASC management companies (USPI, HCA, SCA, Amsurg, etc.) and the physicians who were developing surgery centers. In the late 1990’s we formed PTA (the precursor to Physician Transaction Advisors) at the request of physicians who we had worked with previously. To date we have successfully completed more partnership transactions than all other investment banking and brokerage firms combined, and leverage this experience and knowledge to expertly guide physician owners and executives through the complex and time-consuming process of evaluating your strategic partnership options and ensuring our clients realize optimal financial and non-financial outcomes.
Whether you are already engaged with prospective buyers, or simply want to understand your partnership options, our risk- and cost-free process will ensure you end up with an optimal result during these once-in-a-lifetime processes. Our highly disciplined and transparent process involves:
To learn more about your options and to speak to one of our senior team members, we can share you with you knowledge gained from working with ASC owners over the past 40 years.
Our Recent ASC Transactions
With over 300 transactions closed, Physician Transaction Advisors has the expertise to achieve the best outcome. Below are some recent ASC client transactions.
Physician Transaction Advisors (PTA, formerly ASCs Inc.) is pleased to announce that its client, the Surgery Center of Gilbert (“SCG”), has entered into a joint venture with Banner Health, a leading hospital system and Atlas Healthcare Partners, which specializes in the development and management of surgery centers.
Physician Transaction Advisors represented the owners of Choice Care Surgery Center (CCSC) of Midland, Texas in a joint venture with a leading regional hospital and a national provider of surgical services. CCSC will join United Surgical Partners International, Inc (USPI), the largest ambulatory surgery center network in the United States.
Physicians Surgery Center of Frederick (“PSCF”), located in Frederick, MD, has entered into a joint venture with SurgCenter Development, a leading national provider of surgery center services. The physician-owners of PSCF include top-tier orthopedist, Ophthalmologist and plastic surgeons. In 2023, they performed over 250 total joint replacement procedures in the outpatient setting of the ASC. The beautifully constructed free-standing surgery center includes two operating rooms and eight pre- and post-op stations.
Executive Ambulatory Surgical Center has entered into a joint venture with SurgNet Health Partners, Inc., a Nashville, TN surgery center development and management company. The 15,000 sf ASC opened in late 2016 with a Michigan Certificate of Need (CON) and is Medicare certified. The facility is accredited with the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), and State licensed. The ASC consists of one operating room and three large procedure rooms and fifteen private PACU beds and is approved for 23-hour stays.
Client Testimonials
“As physicians we felt it was better for us to facilitate all negotiations and discussions with any potential buyers through our advisor, Physician Transaction Advisors. Their expertise and understanding of the transaction process, the insight they provided, and the impact that they had on our success was far greater than we ever could ever have anticipated. Knowing what we do now, we as a group would strongly recommend using them for any future transactions.”
Dr. Govind Patel
Choice Care Surgery Center
“It is with great pleasure and personal satisfaction I write a recommendation for the outstanding work PTA did in the sale of our ASC. Three years ago our profitable surgical center began declining in revenue significantly. Due to multiple reasons including decreased facility fees by insurance providers as well as state PIP fee schedule reductions.
After a trial of several different cost reductions and income enhancers we had collectively agreed that it was time to sell half of our ASC. One of the founding partners hired a local company to find us an appropriate suitor. After tremendous financial expense, 6 months of unfruitful meetings with various companies (that were not truly interested in purchasing us) I was fortunate enough to be introduced to PTA, who was the exact opposite of the previous group we were working with.
After speaking with PTA even for a short period of time, it was quite evident that their experience and track records were greatly needed. My partners were on board and in less than 6 weeks we had several seriously interested companies contacting us. After selecting one of these companies, PTA literally walked us through the process insured us that we got the best price and we were bought at a better than market value rate in less than 8 months.
I cannot thank PTA enough for literally saving us from a disastrous situation to one that was extremely profitable as well as relatively stress free. As I told them, ‘It was the best money I ever spent.”
Steven M. Stoller, MD
Orthopedic Surgeon
Ready to Discuss Your Surgery Center?
Are you thinking of selling your surgery center? Whether you’re exploring your options, in active discussions with buyers, or ready to move forward with a transaction, we can provide the guidance necessary to successfully navigate every phase of the transaction.
