Five major healthcare deals since Nov. 15 that physician leaders need to know:
1. Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health and Minneapolis-based Fairview Health approved negotiations for a merger nearly one decade after their first attempt fell through.
Both Sanford, which operates 47 medical centers in North and South Dakota and Western Minnesota, and Fairview, which operates 10 inpatient hospitals, 80 clinics and 36 pharmacies around St. Paul and Minneapolis, have signed nonbinding letters of intent to merge. The health systems said consolidation would aid in innovation, such as expanding virtual care in rural areas, and help them overcome financial challenges.
2. Greensburg, Pa.-based Excela Health and Butler (Pa.) Health System signed a definitive agreement to merge into a five-hospital system that is projected to generate more than $1 billion a year in revenue. The news moves the transaction, which was initially announced June 1, closer to completion. If finalized, the new health system would employ about 7,300 people and serve a population of about 750,000.
3. Primary care disruptor VillageMD, which is majority owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, has acquired physician practice group Summit Health in a transaction worth roughly $8.9 billion. The deal combines Village Practice Management with Summit Health, the parent company of CityMD urgent-care centers, according to a Nov. 7 press release from Walgreens Boots Alliance. Walgreens Boots Alliance has invested $3.5 billion, through a mix of debt and equity, to support the acquisition, making it the largest and consolidating shareholder of VillageMD with approximately 53 percent ownership.
4. Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health is selling four Illinois hospitals to Evansville, Ind.-based Deaconess Health System and another hospital — the largest of the five — to Glendale, Calif.-based American Healthcare Systems.
American Healthcare Systems plans to buy Gateway Regional Medical Center, a 298-bed facility with more than 700 employees, an ASC and physician practices in Granite City, Ill. The transaction is expected to close at the end of January.
5. Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health closed on their formal combination Dec. 2, resulting in a newly combined $27 billion, 67-hospital system called Advocate Health — the fifth-largest nonprofit health system in the U.S.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium and Advocate Aurora, dually headquartered in Milwaukee and Downers Grove, Ill., announced their plan to combine May 11. Geographically, the Charlotte-based combined system reflects something close to a crooked semicolon, with footprints in Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.