Steward Health Care Goes to the Docs
The largest privately held hospital chain in the United States is now owned by a group of physicians who practice there. Steward Health Care System LLC was sold by its founding owner, Cerberus Capital Management, to a management group of Steward Health Care physicians led by the company’s CEO and founder, Dr. Ralph de la Torre. Dr. de la Torre, a cardiac surgeon, was tapped to run Steward’s predecessor, the six-hospital Caritas Christi Health Care in Boston, in April 2008. The current deal was structured as a recapitalization, with no additional leverage added to Steward’s balance sheet and Cerberus’ controlling interest was exchanged for a convertible note. The new... Read More »
Adventist Invests in Blue Zones
Adventist Health has acquired Blue Zones, a community-based population health management company that employs a systemic and environmental approach to improving the health of entire cities and communities. The organization’s work in more than 50 communities across America has been credited with double-digit drops in obesity, smoking and Body Mass Index, achieving millions of dollars of savings in healthcare costs. With the new coronavirus pandemic, the deal highlights the attention now focused on health care (or lack of it) in whole communities. The target, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, infuses healthy choices, enhances connections, instills purpose and fuels hope to impact... Read More »
Sold, Closed, Resold: The Verity Health Saga
It’s hard enough to go through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings once. Verity Health System, which has had a string of for-profit owners since it was sold by the Daughters of Charity Health System to BlueMountain Capital Management in 2016, is on its second round after a deal fell through last December. It’s just one of several distressed healthcare services stories, sad to say. The latest news came the week ending April 10, 2020, as a federal bankruptcy court judge approved the sale of St. Francis Medical Center (344 beds) in Lynnwood, California to Prime Healthcare Services for $262 million and the sale of St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles for $135 million. The buyer... Read More » Kootenai Health Adds Critical Access Hospitals
Kootenai Health, a not-for-profit health system based in Coeur d’Alene in north-central Idaho, has taken on two critical access hospitals that were part of Essentia Health in Duluth, Minnesota. Kootenai provides comprehensive medical services to patients in northern Idaho and throughout the inland Northwest. Its main campus includes a 330-bed community-owned hospital. On April 1, ownership of two critical access hospitals, Clearwater Valley Hospital and Clinics (23 beds) in Orofino and St. Mary’s Hospital and Clinics (25 beds) in Cottonwood, transferred to Kootenai. Clearwater Valley has two clinics in Orofino and Kooskia, one rural health clinic in Pierce and one physical... Read More »
Hospital M&A in the Age of Coronavirus
Hospitals have always been a prime target in the healthcare services market. Suddenly the novel coronavirus pandemic has thrust them squarely into the national conversation. While the attention is warranted, it hasn’t been completely positive regarding a shortage of intensive care beds and personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. We hosted a webinar on the effect the coronavirus will have on hospital M&A market later this year. Chris Schoeplein, Vice President at Ponder & Company, was a panelist who gave us his thoughts. HealthCareMandA.com: Looking back to what feels like another era, pre-coronavirus, how would you characterize the hospital M&A market in 2019?... Read More »