Rural Healthcare Group, backed by New York-based private equity firm Kinderhook Industries, announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire Stewardship Health.
Steward Medical Group and Steward Health Care Network are combined to create Stewardship Health. Stewardship is a physician-led multispecialty organization offering primary care and specialty services which includes Steward Emergency Physicians of Ohio, Inc., and Steward Emergency Physicians of Pennsylvania, Inc. According to the press release, the network consists of more than 1,700 physicians across 11 states including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Rural Healthcare Group is a multi-site primary care clinic operator focused on expanding primary care access in medically underserved areas and rural communities. RHG was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
Word of the sale comes two days after Steward filed a document in bankruptcy court indefinitely delaying Tuesday’s previously announced sale hearing for Steward’s three hospitals in Ohio, including Trumbull Regional Medical Center, Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital and Sharon Regional Medical Center.
The sale is subject to regulatory approval. OptumHealth was in talks to buy Steward’s physician network earlier this year for $240 million. However, the two companies could not come to terms.
According to data captured in the LevinPro HC database, this transaction marks the 310th Physician Medical Group acquisition of 2024, and the 20th in the internal medicine specialty.
