A photo of New England Baptist Surgery Center.The ambulatory surgery center (ASC) space continues to receive ample interest from deep-pocketed investors.
On June 16, Constitution Surgery Alliance (CSA) announced it received a strategic investment from Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS), one of the most seasoned and active private equity firms in health care.
“We are excited to welcome WCAS as a partner,” Kris Mineau, CEO and Co-Founder of CSA, said in a statement. “Their experience in scaling health care organizations aligns perfectly with our vision for CSA.”
The Avon, Connecticut-based CSA is a large ASC development and management company with at least 16 surgery centers in its network. Collectively, its ASCs handle more than 100,000 cases each year, according to CSA.
Among those centers are New England Baptist Surgery Center, Hartford Surgery Center, Connecticut Orthopaedic Surgery Center, the Surgery Center of Rhode Island and others. CSA currently operates in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.
CSA’s specialties include orthopedic, total joint replacement, spine, ophthalmology, ENT, urology and GI procedures.
“As we transition following the retirement of my partner and co-founder, Dr. Theodore Krawiec, we are committed to building upon our best-in-class outcomes and patient experience, which have defined CSA for more than two decades,” Mineau continued.
CSA has more than a dozen hospital joint ventures, and it has partnered with more than 500 surgeons and physicians.
WCAS, of course, is no stranger to the ASC market. A decade ago, Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) teamed up with WCAS to buy United Surgical Partners International (USPI), with Tenet buying out WCAS in 2018 under an accelerated timeline.
“Surgical procedures of almost all types are increasingly migrating to ASCs, which offer convenience and cost savings to patients as well as a superior experience for surgeons,” WCAS General Partner Sean Traynor said in a statement. “We also hear from health systems across the country of their need to expand their ambulatory networks in a capital-efficient manner.”
WCAS has invested over $11 billion across 100 platform investments in health care over the years. Value-based care has been a focus of many WCAS investment companies, a group that includes CenterWell Senior Primary Care, naviHealth and Valtruis.
United Musculoskeletal Partners and U.S. Anesthesia Partners are also WCAS portfolio companies.
“CSA’s clinical quality and operational expertise are distinctive,” WCAS General Partner Ting Gu said in a statement. “Its strong value proposition to patients, physicians, health systems and payers is exactly what we look for as health care investors.”
Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.
TripleTree was the exclusive financial advisor and Nixon Peabody LLP was the legal advisor to Constitution Surgery Alliance. WCAS was advised by Cain Brothers, a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets, and legal counsel was provided by Ropes & Gray LLP.
