Prisma Health and Atlas Healthcare Form Outpatient JV
Prisma Health has launched a new joint venture with Atlas Healthcare Partners to expand outpatient surgical and specialty care, including imaging, across the Southeast. The partnership exemplifies a key strategy for health systems: aligning with specialized operators to rapidly grow their ambulatory footprint and capture shifting procedure volumes.
- The joint venture plans to develop and operate over 15 ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) across South Carolina and southeastern Tennessee, starting by transitioning two existing and two new Prisma Health ASCs to Atlas's management. Prisma Health is the largest non-profit health system in South Carolina, serving 1.5 million patients annually across 21 counties. - Atlas Healthcare Partners, founded in 2019, manages 49 ASCs in seven states, generating $407 million in annual revenue from over 117,000 cases. This partnership with Prisma Health adds to Atlas's existing joint ventures with other major non-profit health systems like Banner Health, Corewell Health, and MultiCare Health System. - This collaboration is part of a larger trend where health systems are expanding their ambulatory footprints to address rising costs, shifting patient preferences, and the increasing complexity of outpatient procedures. Over the next decade, ASC volume is projected to grow by 21%, while inpatient volume is expected to increase by only 3%. - The ambulatory surgery center market is forecasted to grow from $50 billion to $75 billion by 2030, driven by relaxed regulations, payer steerage, and an expanding list of Medicare-covered procedures. This growth is particularly strong in specialties like orthopedics, cardiology, and spine procedures, which are increasingly moving to outpatient settings. - For imaging services, this outpatient shift is significant, as 40% of all imaging procedures are now performed in freestanding centers and community clinics. However, reimbursement changes, such as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, have reduced Medicare payments for off-campus hospital outpatient departments, making joint ventures a more attractive model for hospital-owned imaging centers. - New ambulatory surgery centers are being designed with larger operating rooms, up to 600 square feet, to accommodate more complex surgeries like total joint replacements and spine procedures. Some are also incorporating 24-hour outpatient models with private recovery rooms to manage higher-acuity cases that require extended observation. - Payers are aggressively pushing for site-of-service optimization, favoring lower-cost ASCs, a trend that is evolving faster than reimbursement frameworks themselves. While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is expanding the ASC-covered procedure list, many commercial payers are creating their own policies, adding complexity for providers.
