Transactions & Valuation Issues

The following healthcare mergers, acquisitions and general partnerships took place or were announced in the past week.

The Federal Trade Commission has approved Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica Health System's plan to divest Maumee, Ohio-based St. Luke's Hospital.

Longview, Texas-based Good Shepherd Health System has signed a memorandum of understanding to be acquired by Brentwood, Tenn.-based Duke LifePoint Healthcare.

The board chairman for Miami-based Jackson Health System threatened to walk away from contract renewal negotiations with University of Miami Health System Wednesday if UHealth did not agree to exclusively perform organ transplants at Miami Dade's public hospital network, reports Miami Herald.

Pittsburgh-based UPMC is challenging the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health over a letter it wrote to the New York State Department of Health, which criticized the health system's recent acquisition of Jamestown, N.Y.-based WCA Hospital, according to the Post-Gazette.

The California Attorney General's Office conditionally approved a merger between Irvine, Calif.-based St. Joseph Health and Renton, Wash.-based Providence Health & Services — a deal that would create the third-largest nonprofit health system in the U.S.

MVP Health Insurance Co. has filed suit against Vermont's Green Mountain Care Board, alleging the board overstepped its power when it denied the insurance company's premium rate increase, according to VTDigger.

If UnitedHealthcare and Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare do not reach an agreement by the end of June, some 150,000 patients could find their physicians out of network, 90.1 WABE reported.

The Connecticut Office of State Ethics opened a 30-day comment period in light of Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade's possible conflict of interest with a proposed merger between Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna and Indianapolis-based Anthem, Hartford Business reported. 

Seven Democratic senators urged the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday to block the Aetna-Humana and Cigna-Anthem mergers, with one lawmaker calling the proposed deals "job-killers," according to the Hartford Courant.