Steward health care system in merger with IASIS healthcare
22 May 2017 | News
The deal with IASIS follows Steward’s first out-of-state acquisition, completed earlier this month
Steward health care system recently announced a nearly $2 billion deal with IASIS Healthcare of Franklin, Tenn., which would make it the largest private for-profit hospital operator in the country. The merger would create a network of 36 hospitals across 10 states, with revenue of nearly $8 billion, Steward said.
Steward Health Care System, founded almost seven years ago to rescue a group of struggling Massachusetts hospitals, is making its biggest move yet to become a national player in the competitive for-profit hospital industry.
The deal with IASIS follows Steward’s first out-of-state acquisition, completed earlier this month. It bought eight hospitals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida for $304 million.
IASIS runs 18 hospitals in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
Steward executives said the transaction would allow them to expand the community-based accountable care model they have pushed across Eastern Massachusetts. Locally, Steward’s hospitals include Carney Hospital in Dorchester and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton.
Dr. Mark Girard, president of Steward’s physician network said, “We’re a community-based model with a mission of driving the highest quality care we can that is cost-efficient. We think we can replicate that in the other markets in the country.”
If the deal with IASIS goes through, Steward, headquartered in the Back Bay, will operate more hospitals outside Massachusetts than it does here.
The newly acquired hospitals will be branded under the Steward name, de la Torre told employees in a memo.
IASIS chief executive W. Carl Whitmer said “it will be business as usual” as executives work to complete the merger.
“IASIS’s mission has been to deliver high-quality, cost-effective health care to our patients and the communities we serve. Steward’s innovative approach to reducing health care cost and improving quality of service will further this mission.”, he added