Kaufman Hall advised Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health in their plans to merge. Kenneth Kaufman, managing director and chairman of Kaufman Hall, a healthcare consulting firm, said he expects to see more mergers and acquisitions. The deal sets a model for other transactions by partnering with systems in other areas, as opposed to trying to form a deal with an organization in the same region and risking regulatory opposition, analysts say. Advocate Aurora, with corporate offices in Downers Grove, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, operates in Illinois and Wisconsin.Īnalysts said the Atrium-Advocate Aurora merger could spur other health systems, including larger systems, to pursue similar mergers. Atrium, based in Charlotte, runs hospitals and care sites in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. However, the Atrium-Advocate merger involves two systems operating in very different markets, thus avoiding a concern of regulators about reduced competition in overlapping or adjacent markets. Read more: These planned hospital mergers and acquisitions collapsed.President Biden signed an executive order in July 2021 directing regulators to closely examine mergers, including hospital consolidations, to be sure they don’t hurt consumers. The FTC has taken action on deals involving systems in overlapping markets, saying the deals would lead to higher prices and reduced services for consumers. The Federal Trade Commission has applied more scrutiny to hospital consolidations, and some systems have abandoned planned deals due to regulatory opposition. The Illinois board signed off on the deal in November, The Chicago Tribunereported. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board initially voted against the deal in September, but then reversed course and allowed the systems to present more information for more consideration. The merger hit a setback in September with a key regulatory board in Illinois. “There is widespread evidence that mergers make hospital care less affordable and less safe,” he said. North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell said Friday, “I have deep concerns about this merger.” Folwell said Atrium is “notorious for its aggressive medical debt collections”, and noted Advocate Aurora has been sued for allegations of anticompetitive behavior.įolwell said he worries about the impact of the deal for consumers.
The planned deal has drawn some scrutiny. However, Stein said, “I am concerned about this combination’s possible effects on health care access in rural and urban underserved communities.” “Therefore, the state will take no further action,” he said. In a statement, Stein said “my office has conducted a thorough review into this transaction and concluded that there is no legal basis to prevent it.” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said Thursday that his office won’t be opposing the deal, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. The Wake Forest University School of Medicine will serve as “the academic core” of the organization, the system said.Ī spokesman for Advocate Aurora said via email Saturday that the systems have taken all the necessary steps needed for regulatory approvals. The Atrium Health, Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care brands will continue to be used in their local communities, officials said. The new system is planning to build a new institute focused on health equity in Milwaukee. “We couldn’t be more pleased to bring our organizations together to do more, be better and go faster to help more people live well while training the next generation of health care professionals,” Skosbergh said.Īdvocate Health is going to be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, while the organization said it will maintain a strong presence in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.
Wood and Jim Skogsbergh, the CEO of Advocate Aurora, will serve as co-chief executive officers until Skosbergh retires in 18 months. Woods, chief executive officer of Advocate Health, said in a statement. “Powered by 150,000 teammates – including the best and brightest physicians, nurses, researchers and faculty – we are poised to push past traditional geographic and care delivery boundaries to create a healthier tomorrow for all,” Eugene A. They first announced their intentions to merge in May. The new Advocate Health boasts a combined $27 billion in annual revenue with about 150,000 employees, and the merged system operates 67 hospitals in six states.
The newly merged system organization becomes one of America’s largest nonprofit hospital systems. The two organizations issued a joint statement Friday saying they have formally combined to create a new system called Advocate Health. Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health say they have completed the merger of the two health systems, concluding one of the hospital industry’s most watched deals and potentially setting the stage for more consolidations.
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