Patsy Newitt

Steve Hockert, chief development officer at Southlake, Texas-based Solara, has been warning the ASC industry for years that outcomes data would become the great differentiator, and now, with CMS mandating patient experience reporting and public scorecards going live in 2026, that moment has arrived. Mr. Hockert has already been building data infrastructure into every new […]

The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a consent order in a pending deal between St. Louis-based Ascension and AmSurg, one of the largest ASC operators in the country that would require Ascension to divest several ASCs from its proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg. The deal has been pending for months as it awaits final […]

From block time hoarding to implant cost blindness, a select few wedges drive the gap between a busy ASC and a profitable one. Operational inefficiencies, misaligned physician incentives and a volume-first mindset are quietly eroding margins at centers where the OR looks full but the bottom line tells a different story. Forty-one ASC leaders, administrators […]

Anesthesiologists have the highest annual mean wage in outpatient care centers, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency updated compensation data May 15 to reflect 2025 information, the latest available. Here are the six highest-paying practice settings for anesthesiologists, along with the average annual salary for each: Industry Annual mean […]

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 and oxymorphone to patients at Lifeforce Pain and Wellness in Carthage, Tenn., between September 2016 […]

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 cut their reimbursement rate from roughly 85% of hospital outpatient department rates to 62%, and […]

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 and judgments totaling $2.92 billion by the federal government’s fiscal year-end. Whistleblowers are more sophisticated, […]

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 mixes are weighted toward commercial insurance and Medicare, many ASCs will still be affected. Medicaid […]

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 American Medical Association, this case could reshape how PE-backed firms structure their control over acquired […]

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 prices. The FTC’s proposed consent order, issued June 2, identifies five metro areas where the […]