Five Connecticut-based surgical centers are included in Missouri-based Ascension Health Alliance’s $3.9 billion bid to acquire AmSurg, a Tennessee-based owner and operator of hundreds of surgical centers nationwide.
Five Connecticut-based surgical centers are included in Missouri-based Ascension Health Alliance’s $3.9 billion bid to acquire AmSurg, a Tennessee-based owner and operator of hundreds of surgical centers nationwide.
Ascension announced in June that it had entered into an agreement with AmSurg to acquire more than 250 ambulatory surgery centers across 34 states.
Ascension is a Catholic, nonprofit healthcare organization that formerly owned St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport before selling it to Hartford HealthCare in 2019. It currently operates 94 hospitals in nine states.
As part of its acquisition efforts, Ascension has filed five certificate of need (CON) determination applications with the state Office of Health Strategy (OHS).
A CON is generally required by state law when a healthcare facility or hospital changes ownership. A determination application seeks a ruling from OHS on whether a CON is required for a specific transaction.
The five facilities for which CON determination requests have been filed are:
- Bloomfield Eye Surgery Center LLC at 4 Northwest Drive;
- Diagnostic Endoscopy LLC at 778 Long Ridge Road in Stamford;
- Connecticut Eye Surgery Center South LLC at 60 Wellington Road in Milford;
- Eastern Connecticut Endoscopy Center LLC at 79 Wawecus St. in Norwich; and
- Wilton Surgery Center LLC at 195 Danbury Road.
All five are currently owned by AmSurg Holdings LLC.
In a summary included with each of the determination requests, Ascension states that the ownership change is “occurring several ownership levels above” the surgery centers “as a result of the intended acquisition of AmSurg by Project BlueGrass Holdco LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascension Health Alliance.”
It continues, “The center is currently owned by physicians, through a holding company (49%), and by AmSurg Holdings LLC (51%),” and states that “direct ownership will not change as a result of the transaction. The change will occur six ownership levels above the center, when Ascension acquires all of the ownership interest in Ambulatory TopCo LLC from its existing owners.”
The summary adds that the deal will not “result in any change to the governance or controlling body” of each center, nor affect day-to-day operations, their locations, payer mix, services offered, officers, staff, assets, liabilities or other operations.
Ascension notes that, as defined by state law, transfers of ownership that require a CON are defined as “a transfer that impacts or changes the governance or controlling body of a health care facility, institution or large group practice, including, but not limited to, all affiliations, mergers or any sale or transfer of net assets of a health care facility.”
Since the acquisition does not affect or change the facilities, no CON is required, Ascension states.
OHS has 30 days to respond to the CON determination request.
