Here is a summary of hospital and healthcare merger and acquisition-related transactions from September:
- Billings (Mont.) Clinic and Kalispell, Mont.-based Logan Health officially merged Sept. 1, with attention now turning to implementing a cohesive integration plan, according to the Daily Inter Lake.
- Milwaukee-based Froedtert and Neenah-based ThedaCare, two Wisconsin health systems, signed a definitive agreement Sept. 6 to merge into an 18-hospital system. The organizations aim to launch the combined health system at the start of 2024, pending pre-closing conditions and board and regulatory approvals.
- Two Wisconsin community hospitals about 60 miles apart joined forces Sept. 12 to create a new system: Tamarack Health. Memorial Medical Center, a 35-bed facility in Ashland, Wis., and Hayward (Wis.) Area Memorial Hospital & Water's Edge, a 25-bed facility, will become Ashland Medical Center and Hayward Medical Center, respectively. The system also includes a new specialty orthopedic clinic in Superior, Wis.
- Terre Haute, Ind.-based Union Health will acquire Terre Haute Regional Hospital, which is part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, according to a Sept. 13 release. The acquisition includes the hospital's related businesses, physician clinic operations and outpatient services, according to a Sept. 13 news release shared with Becker's.
- UF Health, the University of Florida's academic health center in Gainesville, has completed the acquisition of St. Augustine, Fla.-based Flagler Health+, which will be renamed UF Health St. Johns. UF Health will inject additional resources — including financial and human resources and intellectual capital —- into one of Florida's fastest-growing regions, UF Health said in a Sept. 13 news release.
- The takeover of Burgaw, N.C.-based Pender Medical Center by Novant Health, which plans to turn the facility into a community hospital, took a step forward when county commissioners voted unanimously to approve the transaction, according to a Sept. 18 report from NBC affiliate WECT6 News. The center, which has been leased to Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant since 2021, would see a $50 million investment to transform it into a community hospital. Novant Health, which would invest those funds over a 10-year period, also wants to keep the Pender center as a critical access hospital. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network have inked an affiliation agreement to expand on their long-standing relationship. The new affiliation is a way to go beyond the referral process, since the organizations share a number of patients, according to a Sept. 21 news release shared with Becker's.
- El Segundo, Calif.-based Pipeline Health agreed to a deal Sept. 21 to sell White Rock Medical Center in Dallas to Heights Healthcare of Texas. The sale is expected to close on or before Oct. 2. The planned sale, which would signal Pipeline's exit from the Texas hospital market, comes after several months of unsustainable financial losses at White Rock, according to the health system. Recent cuts — including layoffs and the closure of the obstetrics program — have brought the hospital's expenses in line with projected revenues.
- Manchester, N.H.-based Catholic Medical Center has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to explore a potential merger with Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare. The two organizations will begin exclusive discussions to consider a potential agreement, according to a Sept. 27 CMC news release.
- Milford (Mass.) Regional Medical Center is exploring a "potential corporate affiliation" with Worcester-based UMass Memorial Health, the largest nonprofit healthcare system in Central Massachusetts, the two entities said Sept. 27. The two systems, which have collaborated since 1991 when Milford Regional became the first hospital to clinically affiliate with UMass Memorial, signed a nonbinding letter of intent to merge against a background of decreasing viability for Milford Regional to maintain its independent status, according to a news release.
- Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health is expanding its California Central Coast presence with the integration of Sansum Clinic, a 36-facility outpatient network based in the Santa Barbara area. Sutter Health, a 23-hospital system, aims to make "significant investments" in the 102-year-old clinic system, including in the areas of primary care and women's health, and with improved technology.