Amid scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and other factors, at least three major healthcare deals have been scrapped since December
Here are the three deals:
1. Optum, parent company of ASC chain SCA Health, called off its plan to acquire financially troubled Steward Health Care's 1,700-physician group. In March, Optum subsidiary Collaborative Care Holdings filed a notice with the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission to acquire the physician group, Stewardship Health, for an undisclosed amount.
Dallas-based Steward and Optum, which has nearly 90,000 affiliated physicians, had not finalized a purchase agreement.
2. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health scrapped its planned $320 million acquisition of two hospitals from Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems after an appellate court granted the Federal Trade Commission an emergency injunction blocking the deal.
FTC had been fighting to block Novant's acquisition of the hospitals from CHS, a for-profit health system, for more than a year, arguing that the transaction would "irreversibly consolidate the market for hospital services in the Eastern Lake Norman Area in the northern suburbs of Charlotte."
3. In December, Walnut Creek, Calif.-based John Muir Health scrapped plans to fully acquire San Ramon (Calif.) Regional Medical Center from majority owner Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare.
The FTC sued to block the deal, arguing that it would drive up healthcare costs in the area by eliminating head-to-head competition between the two. The health systems said they strongly disagreed with the FTC but decided not to fight the agency in court due to litigation costs.