Healthcare mergers and acquisitions are in no short supply as providers, health tech companies, retailers and other industry players look to expand their businesses and gain a competitive edge. Here’s a roundup of new deals that were revealed, closed, rumored or called off during the month of February.
Provider
Northwell Health is merging with Nuvance Health to form a 28-hospital, 100,000-person nonprofit health system. The deal, which requires regulatory sign-offs, will bring “significant investments” to Nuvance and a foothold in Connecticut for Northwell.
Tenet Healthcare kicked off the month with a definitive agreement to sell four Orange County and Los Angeles County hospitals and their related operations to UCI Health. Together, those facilities generate revenue of about $1 billion and are expected to bring the system after-tax proceeds of about $800 million.
That announcement also included word that Tenet’s prior $2.4 billion deal to sell three South Carolina hospitals and their related operations to Novant Health had closed. It brought roughly $1.75 billion in after-tax proceedings to the for-profit system.
Tenet Healthcare later announced plans to sell two California hospitals— Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and Twin Cities Community Hospital—and their related operations to Adventist Health for about $550 million. The sale, which is subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, is expected to close this spring.
UCSF Health signed a definitive agreement to purchase two San Francisco hospitals from CommonSpirit Health’s Dignity Health. The purchase, first disclosed last year, is reportedly valued at $100 million and aims to close before the end of March.
UCSF Health, along with Adventist Health and California’s Madera County, also floated a proposal to jointly acquire, reopen and operate the shuttered Madera Community Hospital.
Everside Health and Marathon Health have closed their merger and will operate under the latter’s name. Each serves employer and union-sponsored clients with primary care and other services. Together, they now reach 2.5 million eligible patients across the country.
The University of Minnesota has signed an intent to repurchase four academic health facilities that comprise the M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center from Fairview Health Services. The deal requires the university to pay 51% of the to-be-determined purchase price by the end of the year with the full acquisition slated for 2027. During the interim, the academic center would be jointly managed by both parties as well as its physician group, University of Minnesota Physicians.
Merakey and Elwyn called off a potential merger that would have created a $1 billion revenue behavioral health company. The former company focuses on behavioral and developmental education while the latter provides behavioral health services. They had announced a deal last year, and reportedly said the breakup was mutual.
Mercy has cut a deal to pick up ownership of Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Kansas. The deal is subject to customary conditions and would add to Mercy’s current tally of two hospitals in the state. Financial terms were not disclosed, though Ascension Living Via Christi Village facilities and operations would not be included.
Guthrie Clinic has completed its acquisition of Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital and its associated facilities from Ascension Health. The pickup had been announced last year. Terms were not disclosed.
WellSpan Health has signed a definitive agreement to pick up Evangelical Community Hospital and its accompanying network of care in Pennsylvania’s Central Susquehanna Valley.
HCA Healthcare subsidiary Medical City Healthcare has purchased Trinity Regional Hospital Sachse, a bankrupt 32-bed acute care facility. It has been renamed Medical City Sachse.
UT Health East Texas acquired six urgent care clinics—five from QuickVisit Urgent Care and one from Premier Health. Terms were not disclosed
Fulton County Hospital will join Baxter Health. The Arkansas system will continue managing the 25-bed hospital through 2024, as it has since last August, and will executive a long-term lease by Jan. 1, 2025.
Payer
Elevance Health's $2.5 billion acquisition of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana (BCBSLA) is on pause yet again amid concerns about the impact on competition. The pair had already put their plans on hold last fall after pushback from Louisiana regulators but had reignited the push in December amid a new plan that would have made the Blues plan a for-profit entity prior to the acquisition.
SCAN Group and CareOregon have “mutually agreed” to call off merger talks amid concerns from Oregon regulators and other stakeholders. The deal was first announced in late December 2022, and the combined payer organization intended to operate as HealthRight Group.
CareSource has a letter of intent to affiliate with Wisconsin's federally designated CO-OP Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative.
Chartis, a healthcare advisory firm, acquired payer-focused consulting firm HealthScape Advisors for an undisclosed sum. Chartis said the move was part of its effort to “meaningfully expand” it presence in the payer segment.
Tech
R1 RCM, a public revenue cycle management technology company, received an offer from private equity firm New Mountain Capital to buy out the roughly two-thirds of shares it doesn’t already own and take the company private. The firm and its affiliates currently control 32.4% of R1 RCM’s shares and are seeking to acquire the remainder for a proposed cash purchase price of $13.75 per share, or a total of just under $5.8 billion.
Veradigm (formerly Allscripts), a healthcare data analytics, EHR and revenue cycle management services company, is purchasing ScienceIO in a $140 million deal. The pickup will help Veradigm build out large language models for healthcare, will be funded with cash on hand and is expected to close “as promptly as practicable,” per the company.
DarioHealth, a digital chronic condition management company, will purchase Twill to build out its mental health capabilities. The deal would add three of the top eight national health plans, multiple Fortune 100 employers and several major pharmaceutical companies as customers. DarioHealth said it will pay $10 million in cash plus stock valued over $20 million.
KKR & Co., a private equity firm, has cut a deal to buy a stake in health tech analytics company Cotiviti from Veritas Capital. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but per reporting from December could value Cotiviti at about $11 billion.
Inovalon, which provides cloud-based health data solftware, acquired clinical surveillance and patient safety software company VigiLanz. Financial terms were not disclosed.