What happened
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it will require Ascension Health Alliance to divest seven AmSurg ambulatory surgery centers before completing its proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg LLC, resolving agency allegations that the combination would threaten competition for outpatient surgical services in five metro areas.
The agency said the divestitures would cover AmSurg facilities in Nashville, Panama City, Tulsa, Waco and Wichita, the markets where the FTC said the transaction otherwise would threaten competition. Six centers would go to SC Affiliates, which the FTC described as an experienced national operator of ambulatory surgery centers, while a Panama City center would go to Florida Gastroenterology Center, a physician group that already owns a minority stake in the facility and would assume full ownership.
The FTC alleged the acquisition would limit competition for certain outpatient surgical services performed by gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists and orthopedists in those metro areas, likely leading to higher surgery prices and threatening quality and innovation. The agency framed the remedy as a way to preserve competition in procedures ranging from cataract surgeries to colonoscopies.
The proposed order would require Ascension, Ambulatory Topco and AmSurg to provide up to one year of transition assistance, protect confidential information, maintain the divested assets until transfer and avoid interfering with employment relationships at the facilities. The FTC also said a monitor would oversee compliance, and Ascension would have to give the commission prior notice for 10 years before acquiring ambulatory surgical centers in the metro areas around the divested centers.
The FTC said it worked with the attorneys general of Florida, Oklahoma and Tennessee, and that the commission voted 2-0 to issue the complaint and accept the consent agreement for public comment. The public will have 30 days to submit comments before the commission decides whether to make the consent order final, at which point the order would carry the force of law for future actions.