Moody's: Hospitals Favor Known Partners, Reshape Portfolios via M&A
Moody's "Healthcare Quarterly" report, published Oct. 21 and shared with Becker's, finds nonprofit health systems increasingly favor mergers with partners they already know through affiliations or joint ventures, rather than large transformational deals, citing lower integration risk and more credible projected benefits. Technology investment needs, reimbursement pressure and workforce constraints continue to drive consolidation. For-profit operators used deals and divestitures to reshape portfolios: Tenet Healthcare regained full ownership of Conifer Health Solutions from CommonSpirit Health, Universal Health Services acquired Talkspace for about $835 million, Quorum Health is converting to nonprofit status, and Community Health Systems collected roughly $1.2 billion from hospital sales to shed weaker-market assets. Moody's says credit effects of these moves are still developing.