Ascend Capital Partners, a healthcare focused private equity partnership, has announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Seoul Medical Group (SMG), one of the country’s leading physician-run Independent Physician Associations (IPA) dedicated to providing both high-quality clinical and non-clinical healthcare services to patients. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
SMG is the largest Korean-American-focused IPA serving over 70,000 patients and 4,800 providers, including nearly 400 primary care physicians and more than 4,400 specialists in seven markets across the United States. The Company also owns a Management Services Organization (MSO) called Advanced Medical Management (AMM), which serves SMG’s physician base and provides comprehensive administrative services to SMG’s network physicians.
Ascend will partner with SMG to provide capital, infrastructure and support to further empower physicians and optimize operations, including expanding AMM’s technology and IT capabilities and leveraging data analytics to improve the quality of care for patients. SMG will also benefit from Ascend’s unique operating experience and insights, including its team of operating executives that specialize in the delivery of high-quality healthcare through MSOs.
SMG’s CEO Hank Lee said he was thrilled to partner with Ascend and that he looked forward to expanding the services and enhancing the ability to serve the communities. Ascend’s co-founders In Seon Hwang and Dr. Richard Park said they were excited to work with SMG and that they aimed to help SMG overcome language and cultural barriers to access higher quality care throughout the country.
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