Healthcare mergers and acquisitions are in no short supply as providers, health tech companies, payers 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 June.
Providers
Ascension closed its $3.9 billion deal to acquire ambulatory surgery management services company AmSurg, establishing the major nonprofit system as the country’s third-largest ASC platform with more than 300 locations. The close came shortly after the system struck a deal with the Federal Trade Commission to greenlight the transaction so long as Ascension divested seven ASCs in markets the regulator said would otherwise face reduced competition. Six of those were sold to an Optum subsidiary, and the remainder to the ASC’s minority owner physician group.
Select Medical Holdings, a major operator of critical illness recovery hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals and outpatient clinics that spans 38 states, wrapped a deal to go private valued at $3.9 billion. The company was purchased by a consortium of existing investors led by its executives and private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. Its outstanding shares were purchased for $16.50 each, an 18% premium over its share price just before the plans were announced in November.
Community Health Systems wrapped its sale for four-hospital Northwest Health to Freeman Health System. The Arkansas facilities ran the latter $110 million before certain transaction expenses, and doubled the Missouri-based system’s tally of hospitals.
West Virginia University Health System’s plans to absorb Independence Health System, a five-hospital entity located in western Pennsylvania, has progressed to a signed definitive agreement. The deal would bring WVU Health System to 30 hospitals in total at the cost of an agreed $800 million investment into Independence’s facilities. The pair expect their combination to close in late September or early October pending regulatory clearances.
ScionHealth handed eight of its community hospitals to sister system Lifepoint Health. Financial terms were not disclosed. The involved acute care hospitals are located in Idaho, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin, and range in size from a couple of dozen beds to over 100.
Banner Health plans to sell one of its rural California hospitals, Banner Lassen Medical Center, to an affiliate of Quorum Health for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close in December pending regulatory approvals, and will add a twelfth hospital and second California facility to Quorum.
Baptist Health acquired South Arkansas Regional Hospital, a 151-bed Arkansas facility that now stands as the system’s thirteenth hospital. Financial terms for the deal, first announced in March, were not disclosed.
Baptist Memorial Health Care will take over operations of the 134-bed Merit Health Rankin hospital in the back half of this year from a Community Health Systems affiliate, a county board decided. The arrangement comes with a $70 million investment from Baptist and a commitment to hire on all active staff.
Hunterdon Health and Hackensack Meridian Health signed a letter of intent to explore a merger. The former is a community-based nonprofit with over 30 medical practices and its flagship hospital Hunterdon Medical Center. The latter is among New Jersey’s largest systems with 18 hospitals. The organizations gave no timeline for a potential definitive agreement or deal close.
Encore Medical Center, a 53-bed facility currently operated by Arkansas Heart Hospital, will be leased and operated by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences beginning Oct 1, the university’s board of trustees confirmed in a vote. The Landes Group, a real estate investment firm, is expected to acquire the property later this summer and will act as the lessor.
Goshen Health signed an affiliation agreement with Parkview Health, with a finalization expected to come this fall pending regulatory approvals. Terms were not disclosed for 15-hospital Parkview to absorb the 105-bed Indiana facility.
UNC Health is reportedly on track to assume control of Onslow Memorial Hospital, with which it has held a management agreement since 2019. The integration would be conducted in stages over the course of four years and brings a $150 million investment commitment from UNC Health.
Wellstar Health System finalized an agreement to acquire Mountain Lakes Medical Center, a 25-bed critical access hospital in the system’s home state of Georgia. The deal is expected to close on Aug. 1, pending regulatory clearances.
Novant Health acquired Community Hospital of Stokes, a 53-bed critical access hospital that also includes a 40-bed nursing home and other North Carolina outpatient facilities.
Fairfield Medical Center is now in talks to join Adena Health after a prior pending arrangement with OhioHealth fell through. The independent community health system and Adena have agreed to a nonbinding letter of intent, and did not give a timeline for any deal.
Aveanna Healthcare Holdings, a home care platform with locations in 38 states, closed a cash deal to acquire pediatric home care provider Family First Holding for $175.5 million. The pickup expands Aveanna’s geographic footprint in seven states, and subsequently revises the purchaser’s full-year guidance to include Family First’s $70 million revenue guidance.
Ellis Medicine and St. Peter’s Health Partners, which is part of Trinity Health, mutually agreed to call off the exploration of a potential integration, a letter of intent for which was signed way back in 2020. A management services agreement and professional services agreement between the two will also be allowed to conclude on Aug. 16. Ellis Medicine is reportedly now exploring a deal with the Albany Med Health System.
East Alabama Health immediately took over operations and management of Bullock County Rural Emergency Hospital to maintain services after its previous operator’s departure on June 1.
HCA Healthcare agreed to sell off 31 home health and hospice agencies to Deaconess Associations for an undisclosed sum. The facilities span eight states, and upon closing will become part of Central Pyramid, a Deaconess subsidiary that operates home health and hospice agencies.
HCA Healthcare also acquired 17 urgent care clinics from Urgent Care Group for a yet-to-be-disclosed sum. The facilities are located in the Carolinas and now operate under the brandings HCA CareNow (in South Carolina) or their prior Medac branding (in North Carolina).
Jennie Stuart Health, part of Deaconess Health System and located in western Kentucky, acquired six medical practices for an undisclosed sum.
Payers
LucyRx and Abarca will merge during the third quarter to form a new alternative pharmacy benefit manager serving more than 9 million members. The deal, pending regulatory clearances, will yield a new company called Healthcare Revolution Partners the companies say will be “the only modern independent PBM with the track record and scale to serve both commercial and government programs."
Humana announced that it intends to divest its minority stake in Gentiva, the country’s largest end-of-life care provider at a roughly $900 million valuation. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter pending regulatory approval. Involved investors were not disclosed.
Tech
Hims & Hers wrapped its planned $1.2 billion acquisition of Australian digital health company Eucalyptus. The deal give the D2C company inroads in new international markets, like Australia and Japan, or existing countries like the U.K., Germany and Canada.
Health Catalyst plans to sell off Vitalware, a mid-revenue cycle business unit that include chargemaster management and price transparency, to revenue cycle management vendor Med-Metric for $147 million in cash. Health Catalyst said the divestiture will strengthen its balance sheet and allow it to better focus on high-priority areas of its business.
WPS, a Wisconsin insurer, acquired digital mental and reproductive health company Mavida Health for an undisclosed sum. WPS painted the deal as part of a broader revenue diversification strategy but said that it plans to expand Mavida’s licensure into Wisconsin so members may access the offerings.
Elation Health, a tech-enabled primary care company, acquired Aster, the maker of a women’s health, AI-native EHR, for an undisclosed sum. The deal gives Elation new expertise in autonomous AI agents as it looks to develop software for primary care.
Clarify Health, a tech-enabled outcomes and intelligence company, acquired Loyal Health Holdings, whose platform handles patient searches and real-time scheduling transactions. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, “creates the industry’s first closed-loop network intelligence engine, a single platform that identifies where patients need to go for care, activates them into the right provider, and measures whether it worked,” Clarify said.
Elsevier, a decision support and medical content platform, acquired Wellsheet, which aggregates patient data from EHRs to surface relevant information at the point of care. Terms for the deal were not disclosed.
ChartSpan, a chronic care management services provider, acquired remote patient monitoring company Validic for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will expand ChartSpan’s potential customer base, allowing it to offer Validic’s established data infrastructure and device logistics product lines to other healthcare customers.
Vizient, a healthcare data and improvement company, acquired health IT advisory firm Empierus. Vizient said the pickup strengthens its ability to address a $55 billion area of spending for providers, and did not disclose the terms of the deal.
Azara Healthcare, a population health and value-based care company targeting safety net provider customers, acquired public benefits and enrollment platform Advocatia for an undisclosed sum. Azara said it is expecting substantial demand for those capabilities as Medicaid coverage changes make uncompensated care an increased threat to providers’ finances.
Med-Metrix, a revenue cycle management vendor, shared plans to acquire CanAide in pursuit of new automation and Medicaid eligibility and enrollment capabilities. CanAid is owned by HCAP Partners, and terms of the deal were not disclosed.
AMN Healthcare, a staffing firm, acquired AI medical interpretation and translation toolmaker Jaide Health for an undisclosed sum. The deal bolster’s AMN Language Services to bolster in-person care as well as pre- and post-encounter communications.
Compliance Group has acquired fellow healthcare compliance technology company Healthicity for an undisclosed sum. The purchasers said its deal would help healthcare customers receive end-to-end compliance support from a single vendor.
Huron, a global professional services firm, acquired AI clinical and patient access solutions company RelateCare for an undisclosed sum. The company’s tools and capabilities will help flesh out Huron’s managed services offerings for healthcare clients.
Koa Health, a digital therapeutic and mental healthcare provider, was reportedly acquired by PsychPlus, a psychiatric care group for an undisclosed sum.