Nonprofit Catholic giant Ascension Health is in “advanced talks” to purchase ambulatory surgery management services company AmSurg for about $3.9 billion, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The potential deal could come together within the coming weeks but still isn’t a certainty, according to sources granted anonymity to speak of the confidential discussions. Ascension was previously reported to be among those interested in acquiring the company, which has a presence in 34 states.
AmSurg launched in 1992 and merged with physician staffing firm Envision Healthcare in 2016. The combined entity’s 2023 bankruptcy involved a restructuring that reestablished AmSurg as a separate business.
The company, through “consensus management” partnerships with physicians and joint ventures with hospitals and health systems, now manages services at more than 250 outpatient ambulatory surgery centers.
AmSurg’s current ownership includes investment firms Pacific Investment Management Co., King Street Capital Management and Partners Group, according to Bloomberg’s sources.
Ascension is among the country’s largest health systems, having reported $28.6 billion of total operating revenue during its 2024 fiscal year (ended June 30, 2024), as well as a $1.8 billion operating loss and $1.1 billion net loss. As of the close of its most recent quarter, the system has lost $466 million across nine months from operations but added $195 million of net income.
Ascension is also in the midst of a portfolio realignment. While it sat at 94 wholly owned or consolidated hospitals as well as ownership interests in an additional 27 as of the end of March, the organization within the past year has executed a handoff of eight Illinois hospitals to Prime Healthcare, the transfer of a majority interest in eight hospitals to Henry Ford Health and the sale of three others to MyMichigan Health. These come alongside other more recently announced plans to both divest and acquire hospital interests.
All the while, Ascension’s management has outlined a shift of certain procedure volumes to outpatient sites of care (an 18.1% year-over-year increase in outpatient surgery visits across a nine-month span) that the organization said justifies more fleshed out care networks—an increasingly common strategy among the country’s health systems.
In its most recent quarterly earnings materials, Ascension disclosed “additional investments ... being made in our ambulatory surgery centers, imaging and outpatient physical therapy sites that enhance Ascension’s footprint of service offerings and provide greater access and convenience to consumers.”
Management later went out to write that, due to the volumes shift, the system “remains focused on continuing growth plans, including building service line volumes, strengthening ancillary services and the ambulatory footprint within our markets to enhance patient access to care.”
Fierce Healthcare has reached out to Ascension and AmSurg for comment on the reported discussions.