Andrew Lovewell

Yeah, my name's Andrew Lovewall.

I'm the CEO of Columbia Orthopedic Group.

We are a large private practice MSK ortho group in the state of Missouri.

Own a very large, super successful ASC, imaging center, pharmacy, DME, real estate investment, PBM, telehealth company, kind of everything we have that can touch the patient and increase our value that we deliver to our patients.

So I've been in the healthcare space

About 16 years in academics, also ASC management, now the private practice space.

So excited for our discussion today.

Yeah, I think that one of the big things that's driving that growth is the migration of cases from the hospital to the ASC space.

You know, we see this happening a lot in the ortho and MSK space with spine and total joints.

See this happening in the cardiology space as well.

I think also one of the big things that's kind of making that transition possible is

Is in America, you know, a lot of there's a lot of self-funded health plans, you know, employer sponsored health care.

So employers are trying to save cost on what they're providing for their employees.

And they've shifted a lot of their demand towards ASC space.

You saw that happen with Walmart a few years ago with their Center of Excellence program.

You know, debated on whether or not that was successful based on who they used.

You're also seeing that happen with, you know, people picking GI type places that are in the ASC space over hospitals.

I would see a lot more employers kind of make that demand on how cases get shifted to the ASC.

You're also going to see more employers offer free or reduced cost on their health plan to people who choose that route because it does provide a savings to the employer group when they're providing those benefits to the employees.

So overall, it's kind of mixes together to deliver a really perfect storm for ASCs to expand.