Physician Medical Group Sector Heats Up

Ten months into the year, and only two healthcare sectors have posted gains compared with 2015 totals. On the technology side, it’s eHealth, where deal volume is up 10% through the end of October, to 139 transactions. On the services side, it’s Physician Medical Groups. Deal volume now stands at 102 transactions, a 13% increase over last year’s 90 deals. (See chart below.) The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) is one factor behind the increase in physician practice acquisitions. Although the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services eased some rules regarding data reporting periods, timing and payment options, the law still calls for smaller practices to have digital... Read More »

MACRA Is Spooking Physician Medical Groups

With a full quarter left to go in 2016, mergers and acquisitions in the Physician Medical Group sector have caught up to last year’s total number of transactions. In 2015, 89 deals were announced. Through September 26, 2016, the sector’s deal volume has reached 88. One factor contributing to the increase in activity is the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) passed in April 2015. The bipartisan bill took aim at physician practices treating Medicare Part B patients, and awarded those that went with a value-based reimbursement schedule versus those that stayed with the fee-for-service model. The true impetus, however, came from the aggressive implementation... Read More »

Sheridan’s hot start to July

Sheridan, the Physicians Services division of AmSurg Corp (NASDAQ: AMSG), came in hot the first week of July with three announced acquisitions in Florida. On July 5th, AllegiantMD, Inc. joined Sheridan’s existing roster of over 300 fellowship-trained, board-certified radiologists, who cover 150 facilities across 22 states.  Based in Tampa, Florida, AllegiantMD is a privately-held provider of on-site and remote-read subspecialized radiology services. The combination will account for approximately six million radiology interpretations on an annualized basis, primarily delivered through exclusive contracts with hospitals and imaging centers. On July 6th, Sheridan announced the... Read More »

AmSurg Finds a Partner for $6.7 Billion

Last fall, AmSurg Corp. (NASDAQ: AMSG) made an unsolicited bid for TeamHealth Holdings (NYSE: TMH), to the tune of $7.8 billion. At the time, TeamHealth was working its way through its own merger with IPC Healthcare, for $1.6 billion. It snubbed AmSurg’s offer as too low, and went on to complete its IPC acquisition on November 23, 2015. Analysts who follow the Physician Medical Group sector generally praised AmSurg’s offer from a strategic perspective, as it would create one of the largest national providers of outsourced physician services to health systems. Alas, AmSurg withdrew its offer on November 2. For the record, AmSurg provides ambulatory and physician services in the... Read More »

Big Names Are Buying Up Doc Groups

This has been a busy year in the physician medical group sector. Twenty-two deals have been announced through the first week in April. Four of those deals were announced, quite literally, in the first week of April. Premier Health, a health system based in Dayton, Ohio, made its fifth acquisition of a health care practice in the past six months. Upper Valley ENT, a two-physician practice in Troy, will join Premier HealthNet, the specialty physician group that is part of the health system. The group now has more than 150 physicians in southwest Ohio. Right in Premier Health’s backyard, TeamHealth Holdings (NYSE: TMH) acquired Children’s Emergency Services, which provides... Read More »