St. Louis-based Ascension continues to improve its operating performance and aims to ensure long-term sustainability for the health system on the back of a $3 billion operating loss in fiscal year 2023.
For the 10 months ending April 30, 2024, Ascension posted a $79 million operating loss, a substantial improvement on the $1.2 billion operating loss in the previous 10-month period. In May and June 2024, operations were hampered by the May ransomware attack, resulting in reduced revenues from the business interruption along with costs incurred to address the issues.
"Now that we are well on our way from recovering from May's cyberevent, our focus is growing our patient volume and sustaining and improving the health of even more individuals in the communities we serve," CFO Saurabh Tripathi said in a Sept. 17 statement. "Most importantly, as demonstrated by the recent CMS Hospital Star ratings, Ascension's clinical quality scores continue to outperform national averages and further differentiate our hospitals' quality."
Part of Ascension's turnaround strategy has revolved around strategic transactions that reorganized its portfolio. The health system has offloaded several key assets and hospitals in the last three years, with more deals in the pipeline.
Ten transactions to know:
1. The University of Alabama System on Nov. 1 acquired Birmingham-based Ascension St. Vincent's Health System for about $450 million. UAB Health, a $6.4 billion system, aims to strengthen hospitals in the state, especially as financial hardship has caused other hospitals nationwide to close.
2. Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Ascension to acquire nine hospitals and four post-acute and older adult living facilities in Illinois. Prime is committed to investing $250 million in facility upgrades, capital improvements, and technology and system investments as part of the deal. The transacation is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, pending regulatory approvals and closing conditions.
3. St. Louis-based Mercy on Sept. 1 acquired Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, Kan. The transaction included the hospital, its locations and related physician practices, but excluded Ascension Living Via Christi Village facilities and operations.
4. On Sept. 30, Ascension cemented a joint-venture partnership with Detroit-based Henry Ford Health. The deal folded Ascension Michigan's care sites in the southeastern region of the state under the Henry Ford Health. The care sites under the JV include 13 acute care hospitals, three behavioral health facilities, and multiple primary care and cancer care facilities. Henry Ford Health's Health Alliance Plan is also includes in the joint venture,
5. Ascension Michigan sold three campuses — Ascension St. Mary's of Saginaw, Ascension St. Joseph in Tawas and Ascension St. Mary's of Standish — to Midland-based MyMichigan Health, effective Aug. 1.
6. In February, Ascension sold Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital System in Binghamton, N.Y., to Sayre, Pa.-based the Guthrie Clinic, now a six-hospital system.
7. Ascension Wisconsin sold its 50% stake in Network Health to Milwaukee-based Froedtert Health in November 2023. The deal gave Froedtert full ownership of the health plan, a spokesperson for the system confirmed to Becker's.
8. In October 2023, Gulf Coast Health System, another Ascension subsidiary, sold all assets and operations associated with Providence Hospital in Mobile, Ala., to the University of South Alabama Health Care Authority.
9. Ascension sold certain assets from its outreach laboratory business to Labcorp in 2022. The company now manages Ascension's hospital-based labs in 10 states: Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
10. In 2021, Ascension's Ministry Health Care in Milwaukee sold its membership interest in seven hospitals to Wausau, Wis.-based Aspirus Health.