Carondelet Health seeks buyer or merger | Health and Fitness

Carondelet Health, the operator of St. Joseph and St. Marys medical centers, is exploring a merger, partnership or acquisition by another Kansas City area hospital company./ppA drive to increase market share and stay competitive in the bruising acute-care market has led Carondelet to talk with at least three other hospital companies about St. Joseph and St. Marys, two hospitals with long histories in the area./ppHCA Health Midwest System, St. Lukes Health System and Shawnee Mission Medical Center have participated in discussions with Carondelet, according to sources in the health care industry who declined to be identified given the sensitive nature of the talks./ppFleury Yelvington, Carondelets president and chief executive officer, said, While Carondelet Health has had similar conversations with other health systems over a number of years, these discussions have intensified recently because of coming health care reform measures and the myriad of other reimbursement and care delivery issues that will markedly change the way hospitals operate./ppYelvington said hospitals across the country were exploring ways to strengthen themselves in light of reimbursement changes from Medicare, Medicaid and insurers, and to better handle the health care laws requirements./ppThe nonprofit Carondelet Health, which operates the 310-bed St. Joseph in south Kansas City and the 146-bed St. Marys in Blue Springs, has 6 to 7 percent of the hospital market share in the metropolitan area, ranked by 2011 patient admissions./ppSt. Joseph is the 10th-largest hospital and St. Marys the 19th-largest among about two dozen in the area./ppSpokesmen for HCA and St. Lukes declined to comment. /ppKen Bacon, chief executive at Shawnee Mission, said the hospital was continually looking for growth opportunities throughout the community but that it had nothing new to announce at this time./ppHCA operates Research Medical Center and eight other hospitals, five surgery centers and a psychiatric facility in the area./ppSt. Lukes has its flagship Plaza hospital and 10 other area hospital or health service facilities in the region./ppShawnee Mission has a hospital in Merriam, an outpatient facility in Lenexa, and land for future expansion in Johnson County./ppYelvington said Carondelet would share more information when firm decisions were made./ppSt. Joseph and St. Marys each reported net losses in 2009 but improved in 2010, with net incomes reported at $12.8 million and $3 million. Carondelet officials previously cited staff-cutting and cost-cutting measures as contributing to the turnaround. /ppAlthough nonprofit hospitals still make up about 80 percent of the U.S. critical care picture, some are joining for-profit chains, which are viewed as having greater access to capital. The ability to borrow money is vital when dealing with the costs of digitizing health records and other mandates./ppSources said a key point in the discussions with Carondelet, which is a part of Ascension Health, the nations largest Catholic nonprofit health system, is that St. Joseph and St. Marys retain their Catholic hospital identities./ppSt. Joseph was founded in 1874 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and identifies itself as the oldest private hospital in Kansas City. St. Marys was founded in 1905 by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary. Both hospitals originally were in midtown Kansas City before moving to more suburban locations./ppThe two hospitals joined in 1997 as Carondelet Health and became part of Ascension in 2002./ppSt. Lukes, with an Episcopal heritage, describes itself as a faith-based hospital. HCA is a public, for-profit company that previously bought local hospitals that were founded by Jews, Baptists and Lutherans. Shawnee Mission is part of Adventist Health System, affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist church./ppMerger and acquisition activity among hospitals around the country has been strong in the last few years, though not so much recently in Missouri and Kansas./ppFueled by falling or slower-to-rise reimbursements from public entities such as Medicare and Medicaid, and from private insurers, hospitals are combining in an effort to obtain greater economies of scale.

Article source: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/01/3636754/carondelet-health-seeks-buyer.html

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