Gary W. Herschman, Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Newark office, was featured in ROI New Jersey, in “Pace of Mergers in Health Care Brings in New Investors,” by Anjalee Khemlani.
Following is an excerpt:
In the past two years, physician and specialist groups’ consolidation activity has picked up steam, mostly due to downward financial pressure from a changing industry.
Hospitals continue to merge with each other and acquire primary care groups, but multispecialty groups and larger physician groups are increasingly of interest for physicians to join.
The consolidation trends are focused on different types of groups, but the hot specialties right now are orthopedic, radiology, gastroenterology, neurology, dermatology and ophthalmology and eye care, according to Gary Herschman, a health care attorney with Epstein Becker & Green in Newark.
“Eye care and dermatology have been hot for several years now, but we are still doing deals,” he said. “These other ones are newer spaces within the physician services sector that are being looked at.”
In addition, activity among women’s health groups and OB/GYNs is picking up.
“These groups are really facing four to five opportunities,” he said. “They still have some hospitals as buyers, other large physician groups, national physician services companies and private equity.”
It’s still a developing market, since the consolidation activity for some of the specialty groups is relatively new.
And it’s starting to attract the attention of a new group: private equity.
