Indiana-based Beacon Health System has closed its acquisition of Ascension’s Southwest Michigan Region hospitals and associated facilities, the former announced Tuesday.
The nonprofits’ deal was announced in early April and includes four hospitals, 35 outpatient clinics, an ambulatory surgery center and more than 2,700 employees. It provides Beacon a concrete expansion into Michigan, where it did not previously run any hospitals, and boosts its footprint to a total of 11 hospitals, roughly 190 care sites and nearly 11,000 workers.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Today marks an important new chapter as we come together, and we couldn’t be more excited about what we’ll accomplish as one unified team dedicated to serving our communities,” Beacon CEO Kreg Gruber said in a release. “This acquisition represents our continued commitment to strengthening health care in our region. Our patients will benefit from access to an expanded network of services and providers.”
Beacon reiterated earlier statements that the deal will give Michigan residents better access to its specialized care services while improving the system’s ability to recruit and increase efficiency via scale. The pickup also comes with a new partnership between Beacon and Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine.
Beacon previously said it would be offering employment to all eligible and interested employees of the facilities—though the local nurses’ union criticized both Beacon and Ascension for not clearly communicating what those employment requirements entailed during the process.
Ascension is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit systems but has lately been transforming its hospital portfolio with a slew of divestitures. It shed interests in 15 hospitals over its three most recently closed quarters as it works to right a $1.4 billion annual loss from recurring operations.
On the other hand, Ascension announced today the close of a $460 million deal to acquire Community Health Systems’ majority stake in Texas’ Cedar Park Regional Medical Center. Further, the system announced in June a deal to acquire AmSurg and its 250 outpatient ambulatory surgery centers for a reported $3.9 billion, part of an ongoing outpatient expansion strategy President Eduardo Conrado recently said Ascension will keep pursuing once he takes the CEO reins in 2026.