ASSURE NEUROMONITORING MAKES AGRESSIVE MOVES IN ITS EFFORT TO GROW IN THE US IONM MEDICAL SPACE

Assure CEO John Farlinger was a featured presenter at the Benzinga Small Cap Conference held May 13 and 14, 2021.

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

The use of electrophysiological methods (EEG, EMG) to observe the functional integrity of neural structures during surgery has become a standard of care in the United States as it provides immediate feedback to surgeons before the occurrence of neurological deficits or permanent injuries.

Denver-based Assure Holdings Corp., IOMARHH is poised to become a large player in that space, employing its staff of board-certified technologists complemented by a telehealth offering for professional neurology services that has led to it becoming one of the fastest-growing intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) companies in the U.S. and the only pure-play publicly-traded IONM company in the country.

To further strengthen its position in the U.S. market, Assure has closed three strategic acquisitions over the past fifteen months. The most recent acquisition, Houston-based Sentry Neuromonitoring LLC, is one of the largest IONM service providers in Texas and will increase Assure's scale in terms of a number of procedures by more than 50%.

As a result of the closing of the acquisition, Assure raised its guidance for full-year 2021 total procedures to 17,000. This number represents an anticipated increase in cases of more than 70% compared with 2020 and an increase of 165% since 2019.

"We will continue to be opportunistic and active in the M&A market," Assure CEO John Farlinger said. "We expect to identify additional IONM assets that we believe can be made more valuable on Assure's platform, leveraging our strength in revenue cycle management and other functional areas."

Another key company initiative is signing in-network contract agreements with commercial insurance payors which helps reduce risk, minimize complexity and accelerate the timing of payments. In an industry where very few IONM companies have the scale in terms of procedure volume nor the organizational expertise to strike these deals, Assure has nearly 30% of its total commercial volume in contractual rates either directly with payors or indirectly through aggregators and subsidiaries with a goal of reaching 50% by the end of 2021. Assure signed its latest in-network agreement with Aetna Colorado in April 2021.

The highly fragmented outsourced IONM market in the U.S. is valued at $970 million and growing at a 10.3% compound annual growth rate to $1.1 billion by 2022. Meanwhile, insourced providers (typically hospitals), representing an adjacent $850 million market, are increasingly looking for more outsourcing IONM opportunities to improve the quality of care and continue to reduce costs.

Joint Commission accredited, Assure has expanded its operational footprint from the company's home base of Colorado to its current ten states over a three-year period, mainly through organic growth powered by surgeon referrals and strong clinical support. Assure has targeted an additional 13 states for future expansion with multiple new states expected to be added to the platform in 2021.

In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, Assure reported a 54% increase in procedures in 2020, with case volume expected to grow to 17,000 this year, including a combination of organic sources and the prorated impact of the Sentry acquisition.

Learn more about Assure at www.assureneuromonitoring.com.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.