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 »
Prisma Health Picks Up Three LifePoint Hospitals
Not-for-profit Prisma Health, based in Greenville, South Carolina, has stayed out of the news since it was formed by the merger of Greenville Health System and Palmetto Health. That changed in March, with the announcement that it was adding three hospitals operated by LifePoint Health. Financial terms of the asset purchase agreement weren’t disclosed. Prisma Health operates 18 hospitals around the state, with 2,984 beds and more than 300 physician practice sites. The merger between Greenville Health and Palmetto Health was first announced in 2017, as several mid-sized health systems began to form larger regional systems. The merger became official in January 2019. LifePoint Health,... Read More » Hospital M&A in 2019, by the Numbers
The hospital M&A market experienced some significant changes last year. In the United States, the rush to regionalize tapered off in 2019, after four years of multi-hospital transactions. The market for long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) was hopping, unfortunately driven by a couple of large bankruptcy proceedings. Deals either targeting or involving critical access hospitals (CAHs) ticked up slightly. And the divestiture programs of some for-profit chains began to wind down. In all, 74 U.S. hospital deals reached the definitive agreement or finalized stage in 2019, excluding foreign deals and those made by real estate investment trusts (REITs). The total is 12% more than the 66... Read More »