Client Success Story

Independent in 90 Days

The Inspire Anesthesia Story

When 18 anesthesiologists at a private-equity-owned group simultaneously gave notice in November 2023, they put their careers on the line in a bold bid to go independent. With 90 days until their current contract ended, they had no contracts with facilities or insurers, no employees and no structure to enable them to start practicing as Inspire Anesthesia. Circumstances were against them beating the clock. Going from nothing to a highly competitive practice is filled with formidable tasks, from structuring the practice and hiring employees to setting up contracts with payers and facilities. Contracting with insurers is notoriously slow, and the anesthesiologists didn’t have experience doing it. The prospective new practice pretty quickly realized that, if they wanted to go independent within 90 days, they couldn’t go it alone.

Inspire Anesthesia partnered with Copractica to hire and credential physicians, contract with payers and hospitals, and set up billings and collections. By January 2024, they were ready to start practicing medicine. Things have been looking up ever since. Within their first two years, Inspire has hired over 32 new physicians, added ten new lines of service, and become the only anesthesia group contracted at their major facility. With Copractica’s support, Inspire has achieved all of their business and clinical goals — while remaining independent.

Declaring Independence

The doctors who would form Inspire Anesthesia previously worked together for many years at an independent group working at facilities throughout San Antonio. In 2018, after facing increasing competition over hospital contracts, their independent group sold to a large PE-owned firm. Over their first five years with the new group, the doctors began to feel their control of their work slipping away. “The group wasn’t a bad place to work,” says Dr. Albert LaCasse, a founding partner at Inspire, “but it wasn’t ours. And I think we wanted it to be ours again.”

In November 2023, the doctors declared independence. They gave notice at the firm, starting a 90-days clock ticking on setting up the practice, hiring employees, and setting up the payer and facility contracts that would allow them to start working as an independent practice.

Copractica just made it easy. We weren’t busy finding a CEO and billers and coders and the credentialing people. Copractica is the reason we had bandwidth to work through what we wanted our group to look like.

— Dr. Daniella Fisher, MD, Founding Partner of Inspire Anesthesia

Many Tasks, Extreme Time Pressure

Inspire quickly realized the enormity of the task ahead of them. After speaking to dozens of billing companies, they understood that they would need much more than billers to set up a new practice. They needed experienced executive guidance and a full-service backend support team so they could focus on structuring the practice they wanted. A referral led them to Copractica.

Payer Contracting

An anesthesia practice can’t bill for services without payer contracts. But contracting with insurers is not a task taught in medical school. Copractica took these negotiations off Inspire’s plate. Leveraging Copractica’s existing relationships, Copractica set Inspire up with all of the major insurance carriers plus Medicaid and Medicare.

Hiring, Credentialing & HR

By taking over payer contracting, Copractica freed the Inspire group to think about the way they wanted to run their practice, to define partner and employee roles and compensation schedules, to structure work/life balance, and to begin competitively recruiting. When Inspire did begin to hire, Copractica was there with full credentialing and HR support, including health insurance, malpractice insurance, 401(k) and other compensation package benefits for the 18 doctors who started the practice and the additional doctors who have since joined the group.

Executive Leadership

Without facility contracts, there is no practicing anesthesia. Copractica was able to help Inspire negotiate a contract at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. Throughout the process, Inspire retained complete autonomy over what the practice would look like, how it would move forward, how busy it would be and how it would be paid.

Revenue Cycle Management

The depth of experience Copractica brings to coding and billing means that Inspire’s physicians get properly compensated for their work and Inspire’s facilities are happy with collections. It’s a win-win that leads to physician retention and recruitment, and better and more hospital contracts.

First Year Growth

In the first two years, Inspire Anesthesia:

Grew from 18 physicians to 46 by the end of 2025
Added ten new lines of service
Became the sole contract holder with its primary facility, Methodist Hospital — the largest hospital

With Copractica’s support, Inspire quickly achieved its goals: for the physicians to continue their practice in the way they want to, clinically and financially. From here, the future is wide open.

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The financial model Copractica laid out for us was spot on. We hit the numbers we expected. Physicians were happy with their compensation. And the compensation drives our work/life balance.

— Dr. Albert LaCasse, MD, President and Founding Partner of Inspire Anesthesia