Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems said it is "evaluating the current operations" at its two North Carolina hospitals after a deal to sell the hospitals to Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health was called off amid Federal Trade Commission scrutiny.
In the interim, there will be no disruption to patient care or other immediate changes to the services offered by the hospitals, CHS said in a June 19 news release.
CHS struck a deal in February 2023 to sell Lake Norman Regional Medical Center and Statesville, N.C.-based Davis Regional Medical Center in a $320 million deal. The FTC had been fighting to block the deal, arguing the transaction would "irreversibly consolidate the market for hospital services in the Eastern Lake Norman Area in the northern suburbs of Charlotte."
Novant called off the deal June 18, after an appellate court granted the FTC an emergency injunction blocking the deal. Novant told Becker's that "with the FTC's continued roadblocks we do not see a way to finalize this transaction."
The two hospitals are the only ones owned by for-profit CHS in North Carolina. CHS has sold a number of hospitals in recent years. At the end of 2019, CHS owned 102 hospitals. That number dropped to 71 by the end of 2023.
In the health system's Feb. 21 earnings call, CEO Tim Hingtgen said the company is evaluating interest for sales that could yield more than $1 billion in additional proceeds. The system entered a definitive agreement in April to sell 351-bed Tennova Healthcare – Cleveland (Tenn.) to Hamilton Health Care System in Dalton, Ga., for $160 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024.