Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
After Deal With Loyola, Tenet Has Its Foot Out The Door In Chicago
Loyola Medicine has a deal to acquire MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Ill., a community facility owned by for-profit giant Tenet Healthcare Corp. And Dallas-based Tenet is looking to sell its other three hospitals here and exit the Chicago market entirely, just four years after it arrived, a source close to the company said. Tenet, with nearly 80 hospitals nationwide, also owns Weiss Memorial Hospital in the Uptown neighborhood, Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park and West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. Dallas-based Tenet has been busy shopping around its hospitals nationwide. (Schorsch, 10/11)
Loyola Medicine plans to buy MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, further expanding its reach while adding another name to the list of suburban hospitals snapped up by Chicago-area health systems. It also marks the beginning of the end of Tenet Healthcare Corp. in Chicago. The for-profit hospital chain, which owns MacNeal, has three other Chicago-area hospitals it plans to sell: Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park and West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. Dallas-based Tenet is in discussions with potential buyers for those hospitals. (Schencker, 10/11)
In hospital news elsewhere —
Denver’s Welltok expanded big time into hospitals on Wednesday with its purchase of Tea Leaves Health, a Georgia digital-health company that uses data to help hospitals connect with patients and doctors. The acquisition gives the Denver firm access to Tea Leaves’ more than 400 hospitals, plus customers in 30 percent of the nation’s top health systems, according to Welltok. The company said it paid $83 million for Tea Leaves. By comparison, Ziff Davis paid $30 million when it purchased of Tea Leaves in 2015. Ziff Davis is now owned by j2 Global. (Chuang, 10/11)
A Portland nurse who successfully argued that she was fired for raising an alarm about hospital cutbacks that she believed jeopardized patient care has agreed to settle her case two years after a jury awarded her $3.1 million. Linda Boly had not received any of the jury award since the September 2015 verdict in Multnomah County Circuit Court because Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center appealed the verdict to the Oregon Court of Appeals. (Green, 10/11)
