APM to close its remaining ambulatory surgical centers
Actions under receiver result in loss of 240 jobs
Advanced Pain Management plans to wind down the operations and sell the assets of its ambulatory surgical centers, under the supervision of a courtappointed receiver, resulting in the loss of 240 jobs, the medical group said.
Advanced Pain Management’s physicians and other clinicians will continue to see patients, said Lauren Stanley, a lawyer with Beck, Chaet, Bamberger & Polsky.
APM Wisconsin Management Services Organization, LLC, which provides administrative and management functions at the ambulatory surgical centers, has asked the court to appoint Michael Polsky, also a lawyer with Beck, Chaet, Bamberger & Polsky, as receiver.
About 240 employees who worked for APM Wisconsin MSO were laid off on Tuesday.
APM Wisconsin MSO on Tuesday filed a voluntary state Chapter 128 petition for receivership in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
Chapter 128 is an alternative to a federal bankruptcy filing. Under Chapter 128, a court-appointed receiver assumes control of a business until its assets can be sold to pay its debts.
The ambulatory surgical centers specialize in interventional procedures and therapies for long-term pain management.
Advanced Pain Management’s remaining ambulatory surgical centers are in Greenfield, Madison, Sheboygan and Kenosha, Stanley said.
Seven of its other ambulatory surgical centers have been closed since March, when hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers stopped doing elective procedures because of the coronavirus pandemic. Those centers were in Appleton, Fox Point, Franklin, Sauk Prairie, West Bend, Racine and Milwaukee.
Advanced Pain Management, S.C. — an independent physician practice that owns the clinics — has not filed for receivership.
Four ambulatory surgical centers owned by affiliates of Advanced Pain Management and joint-venture partners also have not filed for receivership. The centers are in Beaver Dam, Fort Atkinson, Green Bay and Waukesha.
Whether they will remain open is unknown, Stanley said.
Advanced Pain Management, based in Greenfield, had more than 20 clinics throughout Wisconsin and employed more than 400 people before the pandemic.
In a news release, APM MSO said it was unable to complete an agreement to sell the business to a new owner who would continue operations.
Advanced Pain Management has struggled in recent years, and Bob Bunker was brought in as president and CEO in March 2019 to try to turn around the business.
A complex business structure
APM Wisconsin MSO’s filing with the court is not yet public.
But Chicago Growth Partners, an investment firm, lists Advanced Pain Management among its portfolio of companies.
In December 2010, Chicago Growth Partners and Golub Capital announced that they had bought Advanced Pain Management from Excellere Partners, another investment firm.
At the same time, Golub Capital announced that it had provided $27 million for the acquisition in the form of notes and an equity investment.
In its financial statement for Sept. 30, 2019, Golub Capital BDC — a publicly traded affiliate of Golub Capital that specializes in loans to private equity investors — listed $8.3 million in loans to Advanced Pain Management Holdings, Inc. as nonperforming. The loans were due on Dec. 20, 2019.