Community Health Sells 4 Rural Hospitals

Financially troubled Community Health Systems (NYSE: CYH) announced the sale of four rural hospitals on September 28, as it tries to pare down its $15 billion in debt. And more announcements are in the works. Curae Health, Inc., a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting rural healthcare services, agreed to take on the four facilities, three of which are in Mississippi and one in Florida.  They are Merit Health Gilmore Memorial (95 beds), Merit Health Batesville (112 beds), Merit Health Northwest Mississippi (181 beds) and Highlands Regional Medical Center (126 beds). In November 2014, Curae Health emerged as the owner of three rural Alabama hospitals being sold by LifePoint... Read More »

Hospital Deals Lag 2015’s Total

Hospital transactions have trickled in during the first three quarters of 2016. To date, 68 mergers or acquisitions have been announced (64 of them for U.S. hospital or health systems), although there have been many more partnerships, strategic alliances and joint ventures in the same period. For our database, those deals don’t count. Last year at this time, 79 deals were recorded, and 2015 ended with a total of 102 transactions (96 of them U.S.-based targets). Given the slowing pace of M&A activity we’ve witnessed since the second quarter, we don’t expect a sudden burst of transactions in the fourth quarter that would reach last year’s level. Spending on the... Read More »

Digital Health Deals on Track to Pass 2015

So far in 2016, eHealth is only four deals away from surpassing 2015’s total of 126, and nearly $20 billion has been spent (out of 20 disclosed prices). Nine deals have been announced in September, most of which exemplify how eHealth touches many areas of healthcare, beyond the expected revenue cycle management (RCM), electronic health records (EHR) etc. On September 15, 2016, privately-held RightEye LLC, a provider of eye-tracking technology that captures and scores eye movements and helps to predict, evaluate and improve outcomes of its users, purchased rights to two eye movement tests from the University of California, San Diego, and Virginia Commonwealth University. The GeoPref Autism... Read More »

Medical Device Sector Picks Up in Q3:16

In the first eight months of 2016, 80 transactions were announced in the Medical Device sector, making it unlikely this year’s deal volume would surpass last year’s total of 114 deals. As the third quarter wraps up, the sector’s deal volume has reached 90 deals: 31 in Q1, 27 in Q2, and 32 as of September 27th in Q3. If that deal making pace continues through Q4, at 2016’s average rate of 30 deals a quarter, we’ll see a 5% increase in deal volume since last year. September’s medical device deals include interventional device maker Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX), which acquired EndoChoice Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GI), maker of endoscopic imaging systems, devices and infection control... Read More »