The Hospital M&A market experienced an uptick in activity in 2023, with preliminary numbers at 71 deals, compared with 68 in 2022. There was a wide range of deals, from bankruptcy sales of single community hospitals to mergers of multi-state health systems. Here are the top five Hospital deals of 2023.
- Novant Health System, a not-for-profit integrated system based in North Carolina, purchased three hospitals in South Carolina from Tenet Healthcare Corporation for $2.4 billion. The transaction includes Hilton Head Hospital in Beaufort County, Coastal Carolina Hospital in Jasper County, and East Cooper Medical Center in Charleston County, as well as associated physician practices and other related hospital operations. The deal is expected to close in 2024.
- After acquiring London-based Circle Health Limited in 2021 for $700 million, Centene Corporation decided to sell off the organization in August. The buyer, PureHealth, paid $1.2 billion for Circle Health, which has 2,000 beds and 53 hospitals around the U.K. According to the official press release, “the transaction reflects Centene’s continued execution of its value-creation efforts as the company refocuses its portfolio on core lines of business.”
- After signing a letter of intent signed in May 2023, BJC Health System and Saint Luke’s Health System of Kansas City finalized merger talks in November, creating a Missouri health system with approximately $10 billion in revenue with 28 hospitals and hundreds of clinics and service centers. As part of the agreement, Saint Luke’s joined BJC, operating as a single, integrated healthcare organization that serves two regions with a distinct brand in each: BJC HealthCare in the St. Louis region and Saint Luke’s in the Kansas City region.
- One of the largest mergers in 2023 was Kaiser Permanente’s acquisition of Geisinger Health, which comprises 10 hospitals, a health plan with more than half a million members, 25,000 employees, more than 1,700 physicians and 133 primary care and specialty clinic sites. Geisinger Health generated approximately $6.43 billion in revenue and $289.4 million in EBITDA in 2021. Under the terms, Geisinger would operate independently under a new subsidiary of Kaiser’s hospital unit after the deal closes, which is expected early in 2024. The subsidiary, called Risant Health, aims to acquire four or five more hospital systems and get total revenue of $30 billion to $35 billion over the next five years.
- MercyOne, one of the largest healthcare systems in Iowa, closed a merger with Genesis Health System, Inc., which serves a 17-county, two-state region of the Quad Cities (Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, as well as Rock Island and Moline, Illinois). The health system has six hospitals with a total of 674 beds and more than 65 outpatient locations. The deal was originally announced in September 2022 and with its closure all interests and operations of Genesis became part of MercyOne.
