SimonMed is opening six imaging center locations in California, the private equity-backed radiology provider announced recently.
New outposts will span much of the Golden State, including San Mateo, Los Gatos, San Francisco, Santa Ana, Carlsbad and Encinitas. Two more in unspecified locations are slated to follow sometime later this year, with Scottsdale, Arizona-based SimonMed now operating 24 outpatient centers across California.
“Bringing additional sites of service throughout the state provides an opportunity for patients to have a choice of outpatient imaging over higher cost hospital-affiliated imaging,” Founder and CEO John Simon, MD, said in a Jan. 26 announcement. “This growth furthers our overarching mission of making the most advanced technology more widely accessible.”
SimonMed also will offer artificial intelligence to aid in assessing mammography images, at no extra charge. The move appears to be a reference to fellow outpatient operator RadNet Inc., which charges $60 out-of-pocket for its "enhanced breast cancer diagnostic" service and has a heavy presence in California.
KFF Health News recently took a closer look at the AI program and whether it’s worth the extra charge.
SimonMed said the new San Francisco and Los Gatos locations will additionally deliver the company’s new whole-body MRI service, launched last year amid growing interest from startups such as Prenuvo. SimonOne is advertised as a preventative service, allowing patients to detect any potential health problems before they become symptomatic.
Altogether, the radiology practice now operates 170 sites across 11 states and employing over 200 physicians. SimonMed inked a partnership with New York-based private equity firm American Securities in 2021, with PE Hub estimating the sponsorship’s value at $600 million. SimonMed has added 30-plus new locations since then.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.