Healthcare Dealmakers—HCA finalizes $400M home health purchase; Amwell's $320M virtual care acquisitions

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 dozens of new deals that were revealed, closed or called off during the month of July.


Provider

HCA Healthcare finalized its $400 million bid to purchase a majority stake in Brookdale Senior Living’s home health and hospice business. The push into home health added 80 sites of care to the hospital chain’s collection, two-thirds of which were in core HCA markets. Brookdale retained a 20% equity stake in the segment.

Cano Health has purchased another Florida-based primary care provider, Doctor’s Medical Center, for $300 million, $250 million of which was financed by new debt. The deal gives Cano control of 18 medical centers located in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the majority of which treat a substantial number of adult and pediatric Medicaid members. The deal makes Cano “the largest independent value-based primary care provider to both Medicare and Medicaid patients” in the state of Florida.

UVA Health has acquired full ownership of Novant Health UVA Health System, a three-hospital joint venture it ran with Novant Health since 2016. The 260 inpatient beds acquired in the deal pushes UVA Health’s total over the 1,000-bed threshold, expands the academic health system’s geographic footprint and will improve its teaching efforts, the system said. Novant Health’s divestiture of its 60% stake, meanwhile, represents its full exit from hospital operations in the state of Virginia. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  

Atrium Health and Floyd health system said they have finalized a merger under the Atrium banner after receiving an all-clear from the Georgia attorney general’s office. Floyd will add 62 northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama care locations to Atrium’s more than 1,400. The larger system has also pledged to invest $650 million into Floyd over the next decade to flesh out its capabilities, talent, facilities and technology.

Avera Health sold off its telemedicine services unit Avera eCare (now Avel eCare) to private investment firm Aquiline Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. The unit consists of more than 230 employees and delivers telehealth services to over 600 sites across 32 states. It will continue to provide these virtual services to existing Avera Health patients and maintain its relationship with the health system.

Tech

Sema4, a Mount Sinai spinout platform focused on clinical data and genomics, completed its special purpose acquisition company merger and debuted on the public markets. The deal raised $500 million that will accelerate the growth of Sema4’s platform and translates to a valuation of around $3 billion. The company also said it will be looking to build up its relationships with health systems and biopharmaceutical companies going forward.

HeartFlow, a company using AI to build 3D models of patients’ hearts for cardiologists, announced plans to merge with special interest acquisition company Longview. It plans to raise $400 million in cash following the merger and public listing and expects to reach a fully distributed equity value of roughly $2.8 billion.

Amwell has purchased SilverCloud Health and Coversa Health for a collective $320 million in a bid to differentiate itself from competition in the telehealth space. SilverCloud Health focuses on digital cognitive behavioral health programs and, reportedly, ran Amwell more than $250 million to acquire. Conversa Health offers an AI chatbot for virtual care, although Amwell specifically called out the startup’s proprietary patient profiling and health signal engine as point of interests.

Intelerad said it is acquiring Heart Imaging Technologies, a company specializing in clinical workflow automation for health systems, large hospitals, private clinics and clinical trial sponsors. The deal is set to expand Intelerad’s enterprise imaging offerings and cardiovascular expertise. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Komodo Health has acquired Breakaway Partners in a bid to build an intelligent patient access platform for healthcare and life sciences clients. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

PathAI will combine its pathology AI platform with Poplar Healthcare’s lab testing services after acquiring the latter for a reported eight-figure sum. Poplar’s management team, 350 employees and facilities will remain in Memphis but take on the role of PathAI’s diagnostics division.

WebMD Health Corp. has scooped up The Wellness Network for an undisclosed sum. The latter will be contributing its library of point-of-care health videos for patients to WebMD’s existing collection of health information products. The deal also brings WebMD new inroads to provider customers.

WellSky, a post-acute care software maker, said it is acquiring social determinants of health startup Healthify. By combining their capabilities, WellSky said it will be able to help providers identify individuals’ social needs, search for social services and coordinate care with community partners. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Miscellaneous

Aon and Willis Towers Watson’s merger proposal was called off after facing resistance from federal antitrust regulators. The leading insurance brokers deal was valued at $30 billion at the time of its announcement.

Bain Capital has purchased Great Hill Partners’ PartsSource, a medical equipment parts and services company, for a reported $1.25 billion. The investment will help PartsSource continue to accelerate its growth trajectory, broaden its solutions portfolio and expand its marketplace platform, according to the companies. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed.