Surgery Partners to acquire Symbion in a $792 million deal that will create one of the nation’s largest ASC operators

The already rapidly changing ambulatory surgery center (ASC) market is getting hotter as Surgery Center Holdings Inc. (which does business as Surgery Partners) will acquire Symbion Holdings Corporation and create a company with roughly 100 healthcare facilities and complementary ancillary services in 27 states that combined treat more than half a million patients a year.

As healthcare reform changes and the growing popularity of “high-deductible” health plans push more procedures into the lowest cost setting, independent ASCs who would already have benefited from an aging baby boom generation are considered to be poised for even greater growth, possibly at the expense of hospital outpatient surgery centers.

Surgery Partners, based in Chicago, is a portfolio company of H.I.G. Capital, LLC., while Symbion, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is a portfolio company of Crestview Partners. Combining with Symbion should bring Surgery Partners some additional service lines as in addition to ASCs, Symbion operates short-stay surgical hospitals and has acute care services such as diagnostic imaging, laboratory, obstetrics, oncology, pharmacy, physical therapy and wound care.

“We are excited about the opportunity to expand the reach of our healthcare delivery model,” stated Mike Doyle, Surgery Partners’ CEO, in a press release announcing the merger agreement. “Our model focuses on high quality, patient-centric care, through multiple inpatient and outpatient services lines, and now has the opportunity to apply it to a larger geographic footprint as a result of this combination.”

One of the companies the combined Surgery Partners-Symbion entity will be competing against is Amsurg Corp., which also is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Amsurg recently announced an even larger acquisition than the Surgery Partners-Symbion deal. In a stock buy out valued at around $2.35 billion, Amsurg has acquired the physician outsourcing company Sheridan Healthcare based in Sunrise, Florida. (Learn more.)