St. Louis-based Ascension has sold its St. Vincent's Health System to The University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System Authority in a deal valued at $450 million, effective Nov. 1.
Here are five things ASCs need to know:
1. UAB Health System assumed ownership of all Ascension St. Vincent's care sites, including the hospitals at Birmingham, Blount, Chilton, East and St. Clair, as well as the Trussville Freestanding Emergency Department, imaging centers and other clinics that are part of Ascension Medical Group.
2. UAB Health aims to strengthen hospitals in the state, especially as financial hardship has caused other hospitals nationwide to close.
3. "I look forward to seeing how the combining of these two great health systems enhances patients' access to a larger network of care, creates exciting opportunities for our people and makes Alabama's healthcare system more sustainable," UAB Health CEO Dawn Bulgarella said in a Nov. 1 news release shared with Becker's.
4. Ascension has sold several hospital assets in the last year, including several Michigan-based facilities, including two ASCs, to Midland-based MyMichigan Health. Ascension also sold Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital System in Binghamton, N.Y., 50% of its stake in Network Health in Wisconsin and all assets and operations associated with Providence Hospital in Mobile, Ala.
5. Ascension is looking to ASCs for its growth plans amid a $3 billion operating loss in fiscal 2023. Ascension has added 21 ASCs over the last three years and aims to grow that number to more than 100 in the next few years, President Eduardo Conrado told Becker's in an interview.