WoodBridge Healthcare, a nonprofit organization, has received the necessary approvals to borrow $180 million for the acquisition of CommonWealth Health, a three-hospital system in Pennsylvania, from Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems.
CommonWealth Health is a financially challenged system that comprises Regional Hospital of Scranton (Pa.), Scranton-based Moses Taylor Hospital and Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) General Hospital.
Here are four things to know:
1. The acquisition price has dropped from $120 million to $115 million, with a $10 million prepayment of IT services, Joshua Nemzoff, chairman and CEO of WoodBridge Healthcare, told Becker's on Oct. 16.
2. Around $60 million of the $180 million bond is designated for capital acquisitions and programmatic expansions. As part of the acquisition, which Mr. Nemzoff said is to close Oct. 31, WoodBridge is acquiring $68 million in networking capital.
3. WoodBridge plans to work with local foundations, specifically the Taylor Foundation, to fund and support hospitals in providing care to the community.
4. "We're definitely looking forward to this opportunity because we think these hospitals have enormous potential," Mr. Nemzoff said. "We are very focused on number one, capital investment, and number two, growing volume back, and number three, operating these hospitals as if they are a system."
Mr. Nemzoff said the hospitals haven't "exactly operated as a system," and are not currently coordinating, cooperating or planning with each other efficiently. "That's going to end Nov. 1, and everybody's going to understand that we're one system and we're going to operate like one system."