Welcome back to Signed and Scrubbed, a monthly roundup of hospital deals and bankruptcies.
In April, Modern Healthcare reported Q1 2025 hit a record low for hospital mergers and acquisitions—the lowest a quarterly figure has been in the last decade—citing tariffs, federal funding cuts, and regulatory issues.
Despite that, we still compiled hospital news of note from April. Here’s the rundown.
Ascension.Two subsidiaries under the St. Louis-based parent health system closed deals last month. On April 8, Ascension Saint Thomas announced it would partner with metabolic care provider PathPoint Health to open two care centers in Tennessee to support patients with conditions like diabetes and obesity. Then on April 15, Ascension Seton announced it would take full ownership of 126-bed Cedar Park Regional Medical Center in Cedar Park, Texas, in a $460 million deal.
Duke Health. Durham, North Carolina-based Duke Health completed a $284 million acquisition of Mooresville, North Carolina’s Lake Norman Regional Medical Center and took over operations on April 1. The facility, which has 123 beds, was previously owned by a subsidiary of Community Health Systems, a national health system based in Franklin, Tennessee.
Santa Clara Valley Healthcare. Santa Clara Valley Healthcare purchased East San Jose, California-based Regional Medical Center on April 1 from Nashville hospital system HCA Healthcare for $150 million. The hospital has 258 beds and is the “main emergency healthcare provider” in the area, according to a release. The purchase brings back Level 2 trauma center status and stroke services, which it lost in August 2024, and labor and delivery care, which it shuttered in May 2020.
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UnitedHealth. UnitedHealth’s Optum, a subsidiary of the largest healthcare company in the US, entered into an agreement with home health and hospice care company Amedisys for $3.3 billion in 2023. But about a year later, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to stop the deal over antitrust concerns. On April 18, however, the companies entered into mediation with the DOJ over the case, and on May 6, Healthcare Dive reported both are selling assets to accomplish a deal (including a $102.5 million sale of an undisclosed number of centers to Idaho-based provider Pennant Group).
University of Pennsylvania Health System. On April 1, Doylestown Health, which includes a 245-bed community teaching hospital, merged with the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Now called Penn Medicine Doylestown Health, the facility became the seventh Penn Medicine hospital.