Advocate, NorthShore merger still under FTC review

Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Evanston, Ill.-based NorthShore University Health System planned to finalize their merger in early 2015, which would create a 16-hospital system, the largest in Illinois.

The systems announced their plan to merge in September 2014, creating Advocate NorthShore Health Partners, which would sit as the 11th largest nonprofit health system in the country. It would employ more than 45,000 and include nearly 4,500 hospital beds. The proposed deal is not merely an affiliation, but will consolidate the systems' balance sheets, create a single board of directors and demand a unified mission, vision and strategy.

The merger was originally expected to close early in 2015.

Spokespeople from both organizations said the merger, which was approved in December 2014 by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, is still being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission. The systems anticipate a response in the next several weeks.

If the new system is finalized, NorthShore President and CEO Mark Neaman and Advocate President and CEO Jim Skogsbergh will serve as co-CEOs for two years before Mr. Skogsbergh takes the reigns as primary CEO.