Dive Brief:
- Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare has agreed to pay about $350 million for Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, a 900-physician multispecialty group.
- The health system will pay $230.5 million up front, then make annual payments to the group of at least $118.5 million through 2016.
- The acquisition follows an earlier deal, signed back in March, in which the two groups agreed to integrate their operations.
Dive Insight:
Medical group leaders often prefer to remain independent, but increasingly, they're handing over the keys to hospitals. As pressure builds to deliver value-based care, on a pay-per-episode-of-care basis, they need strong relationships with hospitals which allow them to stay within the budget the health plans have established. Some groups will remain independent by doing partnership deals with hospitals, but particularly over the next few years -- as healthcare reform shakes out -- hospital acquisition of practices is likely to happen at a brisk pace.