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 August.
Provider
Northwell Health and Nuvance Health’s 28-hospital merger received a conditional sign-off from the attorneys general of Connecticut and New York. To secure the $18 billion deal, the nonprofits agreed to preserve certain care services in western Connecticut and negotiate its contracts as single-state groups.
Jefferson Health and Lehigh Valley Health Network closed their $14 billion merger announced late last year. The resulting entity is now among the top 15 not-for-profit health systems in the U.S. with 32 hospitals and more than 700 sites of care serving patients in eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.
McKesson is purchasing a majority interest in Community Oncology Revitalization Enterprise Ventures—the business and administrative services arm of community oncology clinic operator Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute—for $2.5 billion. Pending closing conditions and regulatory clearances, the unit would become part of McKesson’s oncology platform, though the oncology group’s physician owners will retain a minority interest.
Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy proceedings continued with several locked or pending deals to transfer its hospitals to new owners. These include a plan to transfer three Florida “Space Coast” properties to Orlando Health for $439 million; six Massachusetts hospitals split evenly between Lifespan, Lawrence General Hospital and Boston Medical Center; and an agreement with landlord Medical Properties Trust to transfer over the interests in several other hospitals. Steward also agreed to sell its physicians network, Stewardship Health, to private equity-owned Rural Healthcare Group for a proposed purchase price of $245 million.
Tenet is selling off its 70% ownership stake in five Alabama hospitals to Orlando Health in a $910 million cash deal. The arrangement includes affiliated physicians and other operations but will retain the hospitals’ joint venture status with Baptist Health System.
Santa Clara County is purchasing HCA Healthcare’s Regional Medical Center in east San José, California, for $175 million. The county said it viewed the purchase as the cheaper option for preserving critical care services that had been downgraded at the hospital.
UCSF Health completed the previously announced acquisition of two San Francisco hospitals from CommonSpirit Health’s Dignity Health.
Walgreens is considering a full sale of its stake in VillageMD after investing billions in the primary care provider, per a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The retail pharmacy giant invested more than $6 billion into Village MD in 2020 and 2021to become a majority owner but has since been scaling back its footprint.
Prospect Medical Holdings entered into an agreement to sell off the struggling Crozer Health and its four Pennsylvania hospitals to CHA Partners. The deal would see Crozer return to nonprofit status.
Community Health Systems wrapped up the $160 million sale of its Tennova Healthcare-Cleveland hospital in Tennessee to Vitruvian Health.
CareTrust REIT, a real estate investment trust, announced a pair of deals to acquire two skilled nursing facilities for a total of $61.2 million. The facilities are located in the Mid-Atlantic and on the West Coast and together comprise 259 beds.
Doylestown Health has a definitive agreement to join the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Pending approvals, integration is slated for early 2025.
Novant Health is planning to buy a 200-provider urgent care group from insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina. Terms were not disclosed.
Roper St. Francis Healthcare will sell its Roper Hospital to the Medical University of South Carolina in 2029, after operations have been relocated. Final sale price will be determined based on a fair market value assessment conducted that year.
HCA Healthcare has fully acquired its Valesco joint venture with the now-bankrupt Envision Healthcare. It had increased its stake to 90% ownership earlier this year.
Payer
Allstate will sell off its employer voluntary benefits arm to StanCorp Financial Group in a deal valued at $2 billion. The sale is the initial step in a strategic plan to push Allstate's three health and wellness segments to "realize their full growth potential by combining them with companies that have additional capabilities."
UnitedHealth Group is reportedly among the potential suitors for Surgery Partners, the country’s third largest ambulatory surgery center operator. Private equity firms are also in the running.
Elevance Health was reportedly considering a purchase of healthcare software company Evolent Health, though that bid has since been dropped.
Tech
R1 RCM, which provides revenue cycle and billing services to hospitals, is being acquired and taken private in an $8.9 billion deal. Investment funds tied to TowerBrook Capital Partners and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice will pay $14.30 per share in cash for the company.
QGenda, a healthcare workforce management software maker, is being sold off by private equity owner Francisco Partners to media company Hearst in a deal reportedly valued between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Roche is reported to be considering a divestiture of real-world evidence technology startup Flatiron Health. The drugmaker had acquired it for $1.9 billion in 2018 to accelerate its cancer medicine development. Though Roche did not comment publicly on the news, it reported that Flatiron has had trouble finding industry partners since its acquisition.
PatientPay, a billing and payments vendors targeting provider customers, has merged with healthcare estimate and payment solutions company ClearGage. The new entity keeps the PatientPay branding and anticipates offering a more comprehensive services offering to providers.
MedHQ, an advisory and administrative solutions company, acquired Trajectory Revenue Cycle Services to help scale its offerings. Terms for the deal, which adds over 150 employees to MedHQ, were not disclosed.
LetsGetChecked is reportedly acquiring Truepill, both of which are portfolio companies of Optum Ventures. The former is a health testing unicorn while the latter is a digital pharmacy provider and former unicorn. Optum Ventures is said to have engineered the arrangement.
Stryker, a medtech company, has a definitive agreement to acquire virtual care workflow company care.ai. Terms were not disclosed.
Arsenal Capital Partners is acquiring Knowtion Health, an AI-powered revenue cycle insurance claim resolution technology maker, for an undisclosed sum.
Miscellaneous
Blackstone is buying healthcare consulting and advisory firm Chartis Group from Audax Private Equity. Though terms of the deal will not disclosed, it could reportedly value Chartis at about $1.4 billion, including debt. Audax will maintain a stake in Chartis.