Transactions & Valuation Issues

Garden City (Mich.) Hospital CEO Gary Ley says previously published reports that Tenn.-based private equity firm Vanguard Health Systems was acquiring Garden City were incorrect, according to an Observer & Eccentric report.

Atlanta-based SunLink Health Systems has announced it has signed an agreement to sell Memorial Hospital of Adel (Ga.) to the Hospital Authority of Tift County, which operates Tift Regional Medical Center in Tifton, Ga., for $8.3 million.

TPG Capital, a Texas-based private equity firm is considering the sale of Iasis Healthcare Corp., which it acquired for approximately $1.4 billion in 2004, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek report.

An unpublicized element of the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Long Island College Hospital and SUNY Downstate Medical Center merger included a payout plan for malpractice claims, according to a New York Daily News report.

For-profit Steward Health Care System in Boston is trying to change the terms of its merger agreement with Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, R.I., before the agreement expires March 9, according to a Boston Globe report.

Moody's Investor Services has released a report, "New Forces Driving Rise in Not-for-Profit Hospital Consolidation," citing new forces behind non-profit hospital consolidations.

The Florida House and Senate passed a bill yesterday that would increase state scrutiny of public hospital transactions, according to News-Press report.

In a move the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center called "punitive and hostile," insurer and soon-to-be rival provider Highmark has decided to drop a UPMC-affiliated urgent care facility from its network, according to a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review report.

Butler (Pa.) Health System and Ellwood City (Pa.) Hospital have announced a five-year management agreement, effective July 1.

Marquette General in Marquette Township, Mich., and Duke LifePoint Healthcare in Brentwood, Tenn., have announced the signing of a memorandum of agreement toward a DukeLifePoint acquisition.