From two New Jersey systems exploring a potential merger, to UNC Health planning to take over a North Carolina hospital, here are five hospital M&A moves Becker’s reported during the week of June 22:
1. Encore Medical Center in Bryant, Ark., will join Little Rock-based University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Health after the University of Arkansas board of trustees approved the system’s plan to lease and operate the facility.
Encore Medical Center, a 53-licensed-bed, 108,055-square-foot hospital, opened in 2021 with a focus on bariatric surgery and peripheral vascular disease. Arkansas Heart Hospital currently operates the facility and will continue to do so through Sept. 30. UAMS expects to assume full operational control Oct. 1.
2. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare agreed to sell 31 home health and hospice agencies across eight states to Deaconess Associations, a Cincinnati-based company that manages a diversified portfolio of $1 billion in healthcare services, programs, investments and community grant initiatives.
The sale continues HCA Healthcare’s repositioning of home-based care, an asset class large health systems have repeatedly bought into and pared back as they reassess which markets to serve directly.
3. Schenectady, N.Y.-based Ellis Medicine is evaluating strategic partnership options, and Albany (N.Y.) Med Health System confirmed June 22 that it submitted a response to Ellis Medicine’s formal request for proposals.
The development came the same day Ellis and Albany-based St. Peter’s Health Partners announced they had mutually agreed to end nearly six years of merger discussions and terminate their management and professional services agreements, effective Aug. 16.
4. Flemington, N.J.-based Hunterdon Health and Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health signed a letter of intent to explore a proposed merger between the two nonprofit health systems.
Under the proposed partnership, the two parties will combine resources, technology and expertise to expand and support healthcare that focuses on care, health outcomes, clinical research investments, and academic and community benefit programs. Both parties are working toward a definitive agreement.
5. Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health plans to take over Onslow Memorial Hospital, a 162-bed hospital in Jacksonville, N.C., under a strategic affiliation agreement approved by the Onslow County Board of Commissioners.
UNC Health will invest more than $150 million to support the integration and the transition will occur in three phases. Effective July 1, UNC Health will gain a 30% membership interest in the hospital and an expanded operational role. A second phase will increase UNC Health’s membership interest to 49%, and a third phase, set for 2029, would make UNC Health the sole member of Onslow Memorial.
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