Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: Divestiture a condition of Surgery Center Holdings’ acquisition of Symbion, (Dec 29, 2014)
Organizations Mentioned:Blue Springs Surgery Center | Surgery Center Holdings | Surgery Center Holdings, Inc. | Symbion Holdings Corp. | Symbion Holdings Corporation.
By Harold M. Bishop, J.D.
Under an approved FTC order, Surgery Center Holdings, known as Surgery Partners, has agreed to divest Symbion Holdings Corporation’s ownership in the Blue Springs Surgery Center in Orange City, Florida, within 60 days. The order also requires Surgery Center Holdings and Symbion to hold separate the management, and maintain the competitiveness, of the Blue Springs Surgery Center until the divestiture is complete. The order, approved on a 5-0 Commission vote, settles FTC charges that the $792 million proposed acquisition of Symbion by Surgery Center Holdings, would likely be anticompetitive.
According to an October 2014 FTC complaint, Surgery Center Holdings and Symbion both operate a large number of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) located throughout the country that sell and provide outpatient surgical services to commercial health plans and commercially insured patients. The proposed merger would have combined the only two multi-specialty ASCs in the Orange City/Deltona area of Florida, and would have left commercial health plans and commercially insured patients there with only one meaningful alternative to Surgery Partners’ outpatient surgical services. The FTC also alleged that the merger would have enabled the combined firm to increase rates for outpatient surgical services.
The purpose of the ordered divestiture is to ensure the continuation of the Blue Springs Surgery Center as an ongoing viable enterprise engaged in the provision of outpatient surgical services and to remedy the lessening of competition resulting from the acquisition.
The FTC has also requested public comment by January 15, 2015, on Surgery Partners’ request for FTC approval to divest this ownership interest to Dr. Mark W. Hollmann, whom their divestiture application describes as well-suited to maintain the ownership interest in the Blue Springs Surgery Center as an independent and effective competitor.
Companies: Blue Springs Surgery Center; Surgery Center Holdings; Symbion Holdings Corporation.
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