Sheridan – the Physician Services Division of TN-based healthcare provider AmSurg Corp. AMSG – recently took over Coastal Anesthesiology Consultants, P.A. – an anesthesia service provider based in St. Augustine, Florida. However, the financial terms of the transaction have been kept under wraps.
This buyout is in line with AmSurg’s investment strategy that management has adopted to capitalize on the significant acquisition opportunities in the rapidly expanding physician services space, with particular focus on emergency and anesthesia services.
Coastal Anesthesiology Consultants currently employs 25 healthcare providers including physicians, certified and registered nurse anesthetists, and anesthesiologist assistants. Notably, the company serves patients at the Flagler Hospital and St. Augustine Surgery Center in St. Augustine, Florida.
Management at AmSurg believes that the latest purchase will facilitate enhanced expansion of its anesthesia services business and will simultaneously boost the company’s presence in the east coast of Florida.
In this context we encouragingly note that, with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, aging demographic trend in the U.S. along with the growing insured population base are expected to increase surgery volume considerably. This will in turn raise the demand for anesthesia services. Statistically speaking, in the U.S., more than 100 million operations and procedures are performed with anesthesia annually, which is expected to increase further with time.
Currently, the anesthesiology market is worth $19 billion, which is expected to ascend with the estimated rise in demand for anesthesia services. Meanwhile, AmSurg has been striving to capture a larger share of this market in order to ride the growth curve.
With this in mind, in Apr 2015, Sheridan acquired Halifax Anesthesiology Associates, P.A., to boost its anesthesia services in Florida. Earlier, in January, AmSurg announced Sheridan’s collaboration with Ambulatory Anesthesia Care, P.C. to offer better solutions to patients in over 30 New Jersey hospitals and ambulatory centers.
These initiatives reflect the continuous efforts made by the Sheridan division to boost profits for AmSurg’s anesthesiology services business.
In the recently reported first-quarter 2015, AmSurg’s anesthesia services contributed 36% to the total consolidated revenue growth. We expect the Coastal acquisition to boost the anesthesia services division and contribute more to AmSurg’s consolidated revenue, going forward.
AmSurg currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some favorably-ranked medical stocks are Amedisys Inc. AMED, Foundation Healthcare, Inc. FDNH and DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. DVA. While Amedisys sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Foundation Healthcare and DaVita Healthcare hold a Zacks Rank #2.
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