More than 40% of ASCs solely physician-owned, survey finds

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — A large percentage of ambulatory surgery centers are owned solely by physicians, according to a survey conducted last month by the American Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers.

The association sent out questionnaires to 500 freestanding ASCs and received 64 responses over a two-day period. The survey asked respondents to provide ownership information about their own ASCs and similar information about four other ASCs in the same geographic area.

A high percentage of ASCs have some sort of hospital affiliation – 19% are jointly owned by physician and hospital; 10% are owned by a physician, a hospital and a corporation and 15% are solely owned by a hospital. The most common type of freestanding ASC ownership, however, is all-physician, at 43%. A combination of physician and corporation ownership was reported for 11% of freestanding ASCs.

The percentage of physician ownership of ASCs has not changed significantly from five years ago, the association noted. Before 1999, the group said, 42% of freestanding ASCs were solely owned by physicians.

The association noted that 23% of ASCs in its survey were single-specialty and 77% were multispecialty.