By Lisa Schencker – Contact Reporter Chicago Tribune – January 9, 2017
UnitedHealth Group has agreed to buy Deerfield-based Surgical Care Affiliates in a deal valued at $2.3 billion.
UnitedHealth Group’s OptumCare business, which specializes in primary and urgent care, plans to combine with Surgical Care Affiliates, an operator of 205 outpatient surgical facilities in 30 states in partnership with doctors, hospital systems and health plans.
In recent years, many patients and doctors have turned to such outpatient surgery centers — also known as ambulatory surgical centers — saying they can provide procedures more efficiently and cheaply than traditional hospital settings. The number of such centers across the country grew by 80 percent between 2000 and 2014, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Surgical Care Affiliates’ headquarters will remain in Deerfield, and no job cuts or relocations are planned, said spokeswoman Alison Donnelly. SCA has about 8,000 employees nationwide, including about 70 in Deerfield.
SCA operates 11 outpatient surgery centers in Illinois. Last month, it entered into a joint venture with Advocate Health Care to run the Naperville Surgical Centre, Midwest Center for Day Surgery in Downers Grove, Tinley Woods Surgery Center and Palos Hills Surgery Center. It also partnered in December with Advocate as a partial owner of the Midwest Center for Day Surgery.
