Dr. Michael Zapf, an office-based podiatrist in California, has been approached by at least four surgicenters in his area to buy in as an investor/owner. “They guarantee a return on investment of more than one hundred percent,” he told me. How? The doctors sign up with insurance plans, but the centers themselves do not participate in any insurance networks, so the facility fees are not constrained by insurers’ negotiated rates. That allows them to bill $40,000 to $50,000 for what Dr. Zapf called “a simple surgery” like a bunion removal, when the standard office fee would be $3,000 to $4,000.
