Almost Family Inc. Becomes Third Largest Home Health Operator

The Home Health Care & Hospice sector just announced its 47th acquisition of 2016, and with about two months to go, it is likely that this sector will surpass last year’s total of 51 acquisitions. On October 17, 2016, Almost Family, Inc. (NASDAQ: AFAM), a provider of home health nursing, rehabilitation and personal care services in more than 250 locations, announced its acquisition of Community Health Systems’ (NYSE: CYH) home health division. CHS’s home health business serves just about half of its hospitals, allowing the opportunity for growth into several more hospital markets. This purchase makes Almost Family the third largest operator in the industry. CHS is selling the... Read More »

Quorum Health Pares Its Rural Hospital Portfolio

Just as the Department of Health and Human Services reported that rural hospitals are better at reducing hospital-acquired infections and score better in value-based purchasing plans, Quorum Health Corporation (NYSE: QHC) announced the sale of two of its 38 rural hospitals in October. One analyst says at least six more deals are pending. Quorum Health was spun out of the ailing Community Health Systems (NYSE: CYH) in April 2016. Community Health took on more than it could handle in 2013, when it announced its $7.6 billion acquisition of Health Management Associates, then a for-profit, 71-hospital chain in 15 states. With approximately 11,000 licensed beds, the price worked... Read More »

Q3:16 Health Care M&A Results: Context Is Everything

Brace yourself. The third quarter results for health care mergers and acquisitions  signal a hard tap on the brakes, both in deal volume and value. That’s compared with the robust second quarter, and the same quarter a year ago. Before we go any further, though, we must note that, compared with all previous third quarters stretching back to 2000, the third quarter of 2016 doesn’t look that bad. Some 369 transactions are now on the books for Q3:16, which ranks this quarter as the second-highest in deal volume for any previous third quarter. The top-ranked third quarter, coincidently, came a year ago, when Q3:15 racked up 411 transactions. So Q3:16’s deal volume slid 10% compared with the... Read More »

REIT-backed Hospital Deals Accelerate

Now that hospitals and health systems have realized most of the benefits they expected from the Affordable Care Act, the mergers and acquisitions in the hospital sector have been supplanted by partnerships, clinical collaborations, joint ventures, strategic alliances and affiliations. But there is one group of acquirers still on the prowl: real estate investment trusts (REITs). Their interest and investment in this sector has grown since 2014, when only three REIT-sponsored deals were announced.  Those deals targeted one hospital each, with a total of 94 beds. Combined spending was $1.27 billion. The action picked up in 2015, with six REIT-backed deals announced. The largest was made by... Read More »

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 »