(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Steward to sell its doctors group to private equity firm [1]
[]
Date: 2024-08-12
Based in Nashville, the purchaser currently operates 14 medical group practices in Tennessee and North Carolina.
Rural Healthcare Group, an affiliate of Kinderhook Industries Inc., will buy the doctors group, called Stewardship Health, which includes about 5,000 employed and affiliated physicians in Massachusetts and nine other states who treat about 400,000 patients, Steward said.
Steward Health Care has reached a definitive agreement to sell its nationwide physicians network to a private equity firm for $245 million, in the largest asset sale since the system filed for bankruptcy in May.
Steward also operates eight hospitals in Massachusetts. Last month, it said it will close two of them, Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer by Aug. 31. It’s currently in the final stages of negotiations to sell the other six. Because those hospitals will change hands, the future ties between Stewardship doctors and the Massachusetts hospitals remain to be determined.
Get Trendlines A business newsletter from Globe Columnist Larry Edelman covering the trends shaping business and the economy in Boston and beyond. Enter Email Sign Up
The deal to sell the doctors group was announced in a statement from Dallas-based Steward late Monday night. The statement didn’t include a purchase price. But in an attachment to an overnight filing with US Bankruptcy Court in Houston, the company listed the purchase price as $245 million in cash.
Advertisement
That price is subject to change, the filing indicated, depending on several factors still to be determined, including whether US Family Plan at Brighton Marine, a Boston health insurance agency, is included in the transaction. The filing listed the buyer as Brady Health Buyer LLC, a company set up by New York-based Kinderhook to purchase Stewardship.
A statement from Rural Healthcare early Tuesday morning quoted its chief executive, Benson Sloan, as saying, “We are excited to bring our mission and approach to the state of Massachusetts, and the other states where Stewardship operates and supports primary care clinics.”
Steward’s statement Monday night said the purchase followed “a robust and active bidding process.” It quoted Steward president Marc Rich as saying, “We are confident that Stewardship Health will continue its stellar treatment of the patient population as a result of this transaction.”
It was the second time that Steward has announced a deal to sell its physicians network. Before its May 6 bankruptcy filing, Steward said on March 26 that it had signed a letter of intent to sell Stewardship to the Optum unit of health insurer UnitedHealth for an undisclosed price, but the parties couldn’t finalize that transaction.
Advertisement
The sale to Rural Healthcare is subject to the approval of US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez at a Houston hearing scheduled for Friday. It’s also subject to regulatory approval in Massachusetts and other states.
At the Friday hearing, Lopez will also be asked to approve the sale of the Steward hospitals and other states, but those sales deals have yet to be completed.
This story has been updated to add additional details about the deal, including the purchase price.
Robert Weisman can be reached at
[email protected].
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/08/12/business/steward-deal-sell-doctors-group-private-equity-firm/
Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/
