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 March.
Providers
Aspirus Health and St. Luke’s Duluth have closed their merger. The new nonprofit is a 19-hospital entity with 130 outpatient locations spread across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It is maintaining Aspirus’ brand name.
Tenet Healthcare wrapped up a pair of California hospital divestitures in the final week of March. The first was for four hospitals and related outpatient sites in Southern California, for which UCI Health paid $975 million. The second involved two central California hospitals and their related locations, which Adventist Health picked up for $550 million.
Kaiser Permanente's value-based care platform, Risant Health, closed its acquisition of Geisinger Health on March 31. The deal is the first part of Kaiser's national expansion plan, which will involve another "four to five" regional health system acquisitions within the next half decade.
Ascension has a definitive agreement in place to offload three northern Michigan hospitals and other facilities to MyMichigan Health. The deal is still subject to regulatory and other third-party approvals but is expected to close this summer. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Steward Health Care is planning to sell off its physician group to UnitedHealth Group’s Optum in order to right its struggling finances. A sale price was not disclosed. Massachusetts’ Health Policy Commission is currently reviewing the deal, which could close during the second quarter. Prominent antitrust lawmakers have already expressed concerns about Optum’s involvement.
Optum’s Oregon division has been granted emergency regulatory approval to acquire Corvallis Clinic. Optum was permitted to bypass state review in order to preserve the provider’s financial solvency, which was strained due to service interruptions at Optum’s sister business, Change Healthcare.
UCLA Health acquired a 260-bed hospital and its related assets from HCA Healthcare. UCLA said it has “retained the vast majority of healthcare professionals and support staff” that previously worked at the hospital.
West Virginia University Health System has signed a letter of intent to acquire Weirton Medical Center, a 238-bed facility with more than 50 ancillary locations around West Virginia, eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The organizations are targeting a Jan. 1, 2025 close.
Walgreens-owned VillageMD sold 11 primary care clinics in Rhode Island to Boston-based Arches Medical Partners for an undisclosed sum. Walgreens has recently exited 140 locations and in the midst of shuttering about 100 more.
Pennsylvania Mountains Care Network and Armstrong County Memorial Hospital have signed a definitive agreement for the hospital to join the network.
Mayo Clinic reportedly sold its 25% stake in Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City, a 741-bed hospital in the United Arab Emirates, to Abu Dhabi Health Services Co., for $150 million. Mayo Clinic had initially invested $50 million of cash and other nonmaterial assets.
Sutter Health acquired five California radiation oncology centers from GenesisCare for an undisclosed sum.
Payers
Elevance Health has a deal in place to acquire Kroger Specialty Pharmacy sometime in the back half of 2024. Financial terms of the purchase, which requires regulatory approvals, were not disclosed. Elevance said it intends to add the grocery chain’s business unit to CarelonRx, which houses its pharmacy benefit management services.
Elevance Health also closed a previously announced deal to acquire Paragon Healthcare, a Plano, Texas-based company specializing in infusible and injectable drug therapies. Paragon patients will receive medical and pharmacy benefits from Elevance Health subsidiaries and operate within CarelonRx, while Elevance aims to expand the group’s geographical footprint. Financial terms were not disclosed.
UnitedHealth Group’s plan to acquire home health provider Amedisys for $3.7 billion cash is under investigation by the Oregon Health Authority. The review will be completed within 180 days of the receipt of transaction forms, which were confirmed in December.
Tech
GTCR, a private equity firm, has sold RevSpring, a patient engagement and payment technology company, to fellow private equity firm Frazier Healthcare Partners as well as New Enterprise Associates, 22C Capital and RevSpring’s leadership team. Financial terms were not disclosed, though Frazier said it plans to grow the end-to-end platform beyond its current scale of $8 billion in annually processed payments.
WebMD, an online healthcare information provider, acquired the operating assets of Healthwise to bolster its patient and member engagement tools. The pickups will be folded into WebMD Ignite, its tech solutions brand. Financial terms were not disclosed.
New Mountain Capital’s negotiations with investor coalition RCP-ASC to buy out R1 RCM were put on ice after a special committee of independent directors formed by the revenue cycle management company ordered them to cease discussions, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Innovaccer, a healthcare data and AI company, acquired Pharmacy Quality Solutions, a pharmacy-payer performance technology company, for an undisclosed sum. Innovaccer said the deal supports its goal of accelerating value-based care and extends its reach among community pharmacies. Terms were not disclosed.
QuickMD, a telemedicine addiction treatment provider, acquired addiction treatment clinic Project Recover for an undisclosed sum. The company said its purchase will expand its reach and impact.
Syllable Corporation, a process automation vendor, purchased EHR analysis company Actium Health for an undisclosed sum. With Actium under its wing, Syllable said it will be able to flesh out its automation offerings for health systems.
Sagility acquired healthcare call center automation tech startup BirchAI for an undisclosed sum.
Carenet Health, a patient engagement and navigation company, acquired all assets of population health management technology company Health Dialog from Rite Aid. Terms were not disclosed.
Healthy Together, a SaaS vendor for government programs, acquired predictive insights platform Kinsa Health for an undisclosed sum.
Mahana Therapeutics, a digital chronic disease management program maker, acquired digital digestive health company Cara Care (HiDoc Technologies GmbH) to accelerate its market entry in Europe, where it says reimbursement for the offerings outpaces that of the U.S. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Miscellaneous
Healthpeak Properties and Physicians Realty Trust, both healthcare real estate companies, closed their previously announced $21 billion merger. The new company operates under the name Healthpeak Properties and is trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Sila Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust, acquired four micro-hospitals and a freestanding emergency department for $85.5 million. The facilities are located in Arizona and Texas and are leased by Tenet Healthcare.