Healthcare Dealmakers—Oregon's $6.6B hospital merger and more

Healthcare Dealmakers—Oregon's $6.6B hospital merger and more unknown Healthcare Dealmakers—Oregon's $6.6B hospital merger and moreFierceHealthcare

Healthcare mergers and acquisitions are in no short supply as providers, health tech companies, retailers and other industry players look to expand their businesses and gain a competitive edge. Here’s a roundup of new deals that were revealed, closed, rumored or called off during the month of August.

Providers

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Legacy Health have signed a nonbinding letter of intent to merge and form a 10-hospital, $6.6 billion health system. The deal is expected to close next year pending approvals and would see OHSU become the parent of Legacy, which has struggled financially as of late. Other financial terms were not disclosed, though the announcement highlighted a 10-year, roughly $1 billion commitment from OHSU toward improving the entity’s primary- and community-based services.

Wellstar Health System and Augusta University Health System completed their 12-hospital merger on Aug. 30. The latter’s three hospitals are being renamed with the Wellstar branding.

Cano Health, a primary care company, said it is exploring a potential sale amid layoffs and dwindling cash, executives said during a quarterly earnings call. There is no timetable yet set for a full or partial sale.

Logan Health, a six-hospital system, and Billings Clinic, Montana’s largest independent health system, have passed regulatory reviews and are moving forward with plans to merge that were announced in February. The deal will become official on Sept. 1.

Mercy has signed a definitive agreement to pick up SoutheastHEALTH in Missouri. The hospital’s affiliation is subject to regulatory review and other terms.

Norton Healthcare is fully acquiring two Indiana hospitals, Clark Memorial Health and Scott Memorial Health, that it had jointly run with Lifepoint Health.

University of Iowa has a signed letter of intent to acquire all operating facilities and assets of Mercy Iowa City, a bankrupt 234-bed hospital, for $20 million.

Thomas Jefferson University, which owns Jefferson Health, sold its lab business to Labcorp for $108 million, per quarterly financial filings. The deal had been announced in May.

Tufts Medicine also sold off its Outreach Laboratory Business and other related assets to lab services giant Labcorp. The deal is expected to close in October pending approval and will come with a partnership arrangement between the two organizations. Other financial terms were not disclosed.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital will reportedly acquire Pediatric Associates of Cincinnati, a primary care practice that sees 2,000 patients per year.

Intermountain Health wrapped up its previously announced acquisition of Advent Home Health, a Las Vegas-based home health agency. Advent will now operate as Intermountain Home Healthcare across southern Nevada.

Boone Memorial Hospital is purchasing “substantially all Family Life Pharmacy’s assets” as well as a pharmacy building in Comfort, West Virginia. The pharmacy will reopen as BMH Comfort Pharmacy.

Payers

UnitedHealth Group’s $3.3 billion purchase of home health and hospice firm Amedisys has been pushed back due to a second request for information from the Department of Justice. The companies can’t move forward with their deal until 30 days after compliance with the request, which was received Aug. 4.

Centene has signed a definitive agreement to sell Circle Health Group, which runs 53 hospitals across the U.K., to PureHealth, which is the Middle East's largest integrated health network. The government insurance giant said the deal, which is pending regulatory approvals, is valued at $1.2 billion, including debt assumed. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.

Tech

Roper Technologies bought cloud-based performance management and data solutions provider Syntellis Performance Solutions for a net price of $1.25 billion, which includes a $135 million tax benefit that resulted from the deal. Syntellis will be combined with Strata Decision Technology, which Roper also owns.

NextGen Healthcare, an EHR vendor with a $1.2 billion market share, is exploring a sale, according to a Reuters report citing anonymous sources.

Definitive Healthcare picked up data analytics startup Populi in a $52 million all-cash deal. The purchase broadens the company’s suite of healthcare commercial intelligence solutions with new data, analytics and visualization tools tailor-built for the provider market. The deal’s structure includes a potential for additional consideration of up to $28 million contingent upon achievement of certain performance-based milestones.

Phreesia has acquired Access eForms, an electronic forms management and automation technology provider. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Orbita, a healthcare smart virtual assistant and workflow provider, acquired the assets of digital health specialty care navigation company Wellbe. The deal includes Wellbe’s software, customers and certain staff. Other financial terms were not disclosed.

Waystar, a healthcare payments technology company, acquired HealthPay24 to add a patient financial engagement solution to its platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Experity, an urgent care technology vendor, picked up OnePACS, a teleradiology company, for an undisclosed sum.

Miscellaneous

Informa Markets is acquiring the management rights to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's annual health IT conference. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though it will see the nonprofit health IT organization remain in charge of developing expert content and programming for the show.

National Quality Forum is joining accrediting giant Joint Commission as an “affiliate member … while maintaining its independence in convening and developing consensus-based measures, implementation guidance and practices that benefit all stakeholders.” Other terms were not disclosed.

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization are exploring a merger. The groups signed a nonbinding letter of intent with the support of consulting firm McKinley Advisors.

Elite365 – Healthcare Workforce Solutions acquired fellow healthcare staffing firm Kobor MedSearch. Terms were not disclosed.