Healthcare mergers and acquisitions are in no short supply as providers, payers, 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 October.
Provider
LCMC Health announced plans to purchase three Tulane University hospitals from HCA Healthcare for a reported $150 million. The nonprofit system has committed to a $220 million initial capital investment across the hospitals upon sealing the deal and hopes to close either at the end of this year or beginning of next. As it awaits regulatory review, a national nurses’ union has penned a letter to Louisiana’s attorney general warning that the acquisition could result in a duopoly in the New Orleans hospital market.
VillageMD, which is majority owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, is reportedly exploring a potential deal to merge with medical practice Summit Health, the parent company of urgent care clinic chain CityMD. The acquisition by primary care provider VillageMD of Summit is said to value the combined entity in the range of $5 billion and $10 billion.
Essentia Health and Marshfield Clinic Health System are investigating a potential merger to form an integrated regional health system of 25 hospitals. The entity would serve more than 2 million rural and mid-urban Midwest residents, the systems said, though their signing of a memorandum is only the first of several potential merger steps.
Yale New Haven Health took a step forward in its plans to acquire two Connecticut health systems from Prospect Medical Holdings. The state’s largest system signed an agreement to acquire the businesses, real estate, physician clinic operations and outpatient services of Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Olathe Health, a two-hospital system, has signed a letter of intent to join the University of Kansas Health System. The systems said their potential partnership would bring Olathe new investments, retention of all associates, strengthened recruitment and specialized care expansion.
SUNY Upstate Medical University and Crouse Health System’s merger bid faces backlash from the Federal Trade Commission, which filed a public comment with the New York State Department of Health calling for the deal to be blocked. Citing its own analysis, the commission said the deal would likely drive higher costs, lower care quality, reduced access to care and lower wages for workers and, therefore, should not be granted a certificate of public advantage. The systems had proposed their merger plans in April and filed their request with the state in July.
UCHealth and Parkview Health System, both in Colorado, have signed a letter of intent to join together during 2023. A deal would add Parkview’s 450-bed medical center to UCHealth’s 12 hospitals and come with a $200 million investment over the next several years.
MultiCare Health System and Yakima Valley Memorial have signed a letter of intent to explore a merger. The latter is headlined by a 226-bed nonprofit community hospital, which would join MultiCare’s 11 Pacific Northwest hospitals.
Payer
UnitedHealth Group wrapped up its controversial acquisition of Change Healthcare. The nearly $8 billion merger was first announced in January 2021 but was delayed by the Department of Justice’s attempts to intervene. A federal judge gave the deal a green light in September following a lengthy trial.
CVS Health’s plans to acquire Signify Health are facing heavy scrutiny from the Department of Justice (DOJ), according to a filing regarding the DOJ's requests for additional information. This second request for information gives the department an extra 30 days to probe the merger, which was announced in early September.
Molina Healthcare announced the close of a deal to acquire AgeWell New York’s Medicaid Managed Long Term Care business. The latter boasted roughly 13,000 members as of Sept. 30. Reports peg the purchase price at $110 million.
OneDigital, an insurance brokerage, financial services and human resources consulting firm, has acquired Medicare insurance advisor HealthWorks for an undisclosed sum. The deal represents OneDigitals entrance into the Medicare market.
Tech
TPG Capital has finalized its $2.2 billion deal to acquire ClaimsXten, Change Healthcare's claims-editing business segment. The firm had agreed to a purchase in April that was contingent on the closure of Change Healthcare’s merger with UnitedHealth Group, for which divestment of ClaimsXten became a requirement. TPG funded the deal with $1.2 billion of equity and $1 billion in debt financing. About 375 employees will continue working with ClaimsXten as part of the divestiture.
Francisco Partners, an investment firm, signed a definitive agreement to acquire bswift from CVS Health before the end of the year for an undisclosed sum. Bswift provides software and services that streamline benefits and human resources administration and has been part of Aetna since 2014 and CVS Health since 2018.
Walgreens Boots Alliance shared plans to acquire the remaining 45% stake in care coordination and benefit management services firm CareCentrix for approximately $392 million. Walgreens had just closed its initial $330 million investment in the company in August. The latest transaction is expected to close by March 2023.
National Medical Billing Services announced the acquisition of fellow revenue cycle management firm MedTek, a move the former said will help strengthen its end-to-end offerings for ambulatory surgical centers, surgical practices and anesthesia groups. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
WELL Health, a maker of digital practice management tools, has entered an agreement to acquire Cloud Practice Inc. and three clinics from CloudMD Software & Services for about $5.75 million. Cloud Practice’s medical software products include an EHR, a cloud-based EHR and medical billing software. The company expects its new assets to be profitable and deliver over $9 million in top-line revenue.
Beckman Coulter Diagnostics has acquired StoCastic, a provider of in-EHR decision support tools for hospital emergency departments, for an undisclosed price. All associates at StoCastic have joined the clinical decision support business of Beckman Coulter.