NEW SUPERGROUP AmSurg and Envision Healthcare will merge to form on of the largest physician outsourcing groups.

Will AmSurg exit the surgery center business? That's the question some are asking in the wake of AmSurg's merger with Envision Healthcare that creates one of the largest physician staffing companies in the country.

In addition to providing outsourced physician services to hospitals and other healthcare providers, AmSurg is one of the nation's leading surgical center management companies, operating more than 250 ASCs across the country.

A prominent stock analyst wouldn't be surprised if AmSurg exited the surgery center business because it doesn't compliment the physician-staffing business that will form the core of the merged entity.

Joe France of Cantor Fitzgerald told the Nashville Post that AmSurg-Envision executives could decide that AmSurg's ASCs don't fit well enough with physician staffing in emergency care, anesthesiology, radiology and surgery.

Christopher A. Holden, who currently serves as president and CEO of AmSurg and will hold the same positions under the new company, to be called Envision Healthcare, noted in a statement that the combination "will create a national platform with a highly differentiated suite of solutions" and will increase the company's ability to "empower physicians and expand our client relationships."

Kendal Gapinski