Tara covers the business of health care. Her stories focus on hospitals, doctors, and how their business practices affect patients — especially when private equity gets involved. She also writes about health insurance and ideas for improving our broken health system. You can reach Tara on Signal at tarabannow.70.

Bon Secours Mercy Health could soon become one of the country’s biggest ambulatory surgery center operators, a move that’s likely to boost the Catholic health system’s profitability and leverage over health insurers. 

The nonprofit system announced Monday that it plans to acquire Surgery Partners, a publicly traded chain of more. than 200 ambulatory surgery centers, short-stay hospitals, and multispecialty physician practices in 30 states, in a deal valued at $5.7 billion. The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, would also deepen the health system’s ties with the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Traditional hospital operators, nonprofit and for-profit alike, have been buying up ambulatory surgery centers at a rapid pace in recent years. The facilities are seen as an increasingly attractive investment as more procedures migrate into outpatient settings under payment changes in Medicare and as commercial insurers steer their members to the lower-cost facilities. Earlier this year, nonprofit Ascension paid $3.9 billion for Amsurg, growing its network of ambulatory surgery centers to about 300.