They’re going after private equity?!?!

[amyl]

Judge dismisses FTC’s antitrust suit against Welsh Carson

Regulators sued the private equity firm last year for consolidating anesthesiology services in Texas with its portfolio company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners. Now, a judge is holding Welsh Carson blameless while allowing the suit against USAP to continue.

www.healthcaredive.com

FTC dismisses case against WC (pe) but is still coming after the doctors…. Hmmmm

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[aneftp]

It is interesting judge says Welsh Carson doesn’t have majority share. But has voting super powers to manage the company.

The judge has no clue what he’s ruling on. Either you have control of the company (which the obviously do). Or not. You can’t have it both ways

Now welsch Carson can give up controlling shares. But they won’t.

 

[triggermaster]

Judge dismisses FTC’s antitrust suit against Welsh Carson

Regulators sued the private equity firm last year for consolidating anesthesiology services in Texas with its portfolio company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners. Now, a judge is holding Welsh Carson blameless while allowing the suit against USAP to continue.

www.healthcaredive.com

FTC dismisses case against WC (pe) but is still coming after the doctors…. Hmmmm

When you sell your soul to the devil…

 

[amyl]

It is interesting judge says Welsh Carson doesn’t have majority share. But has voting super powers to manage the company.

The judge has no clue what he’s ruling on. Either you have control of the company (which the obviously do). Or not. You can’t have it both ways

Now welsch Carson can give up controlling shares. But they won’t.

WC used to own more of USAP than it does now…. At the time when things accused allegedly happened they owned more.
I didn’t even work for USAP at the time so I don’t know what occurred. I’d like to know

Most of us in USAP now didn’t sell ourselves to the devil… we didn’t get the buyout or have a choice 🤷‍♀️ we just love where we live

 

[Howard888]

Around 2018 when they realized they couldn’t go public, WC brought in a couple more big institutional investors hence reducing their ownership (although not controlling power) substantially.

They were probably able to use this reduced ownership in this situation-throwing all the physicians under the bus.

I still am not sure the FTC wins here but this whole process will cost quite a bit of money in legal fees (which I wonder will only be passed along to the Texas practices as this is Texas specific?). Now that Welsh Carson isn’t part of suit can they avoid any of these expenses too? Again falls on docs.

Im no lawyer by any means but I think there’s enough competition in Texas for FTC to have a hard time. However some of the info looks pretty bad for USAP. Some of the quotes/emails from the purchase of Austin practice. Claims of conspiracies to with another PE to stay out of each others markets. And I’ve heard the rates USAP charge/receive from commercial payers are substantially higher than many other practices in Texas. Paints a nasty picture as a lot of that money is often going to pay PE.

We’ll see. FTCs goal is just to break up the practices to smaller practices. Basically the original groups again. At which point I’m guessing they would revert back to old contracts or have to renegotiate new ones. With no surprises act payers would not negotiate good rates…be brutal for these places

 

[aneftp]

WC used to own more of USAP than it does now…. At the time when things accused allegedly happened they owned more.
I didn’t even work for USAP at the time so I don’t know what occurred. I’d like to know

Most of us in USAP now didn’t sell ourselves to the devil… we didn’t get the buyout or have a choice 🤷‍♀️ we just love where we live

History is repeating itself with Mednax (American anesthesiology) division doing a slow decline from 2016 to finally selling off for Pennies by 2020 to Napa.

Mednax big anesthesia purchase began in 2007. This spending spree over 6 years of highly lucrative anesthesia practices (practices got stocks and cash). Sound familiar? The early docs made out like bandits. (My friends stocks went up 3-4x the value) plus the cash buyout. Of course Mednax stock started tanking around 2014/5 . But he made out like a bandit.

Usap form as we all know in 2014. Went on major spending spree from 2015-2017. They are now in year 10 just like American anesthesiology was in year 10 in 2017.

Partners are leaving USAP’s division in certain USA states. It’s too much work. Many of the Mednax American anesthesiology partners started leaving within 5 years of their buyouts.

History repeats itself. It’s slightly different in that usap never went public. But the playbook and ending will be the same

I do think usap is a well oil machine. They are well run. But market conditions are imposing too much financial constraints on the company.

 

[triggermaster]

WC used to own more of USAP than it does now…. At the time when things accused allegedly happened they owned more.
I didn’t even work for USAP at the time so I don’t know what occurred. I’d like to know

Most of us in USAP now didn’t sell ourselves to the devil… we didn’t get the buyout or have a choice 🤷‍♀️ we just love where we live

Most people at USAP did, but fewer and fewer every year.