Symbion Spinoff Preserves Competition In Florida Ambulatory Surgical Market

Designed to preserve competition in central Florida’s ambulatory surgery center market, a proposed settlement by the Federal Trade Commission would require Surgery Center Holdings Inc. to divest an ownership interest in an Orange City surgery center from its proposed $792 million acquisition of Symbion Holdings Corp. (In re Surgery Center Holdings, Inc., FTC, File No. 141 0183).

Both Surgery Center Holding, known as Surgery Partners, and Symbion, a subsidiary of Crestview Partners, LP, sell and provide outpatient surgical services to commercial health plans and commercially insured patients.

The concentration was projected by the FTC staff to be anticompetitive ...