Dive Brief:
- DaVita HealthCare Partners has announced a new agreement to purchase Colorado Springs Health Partners, a 100-physician multi-specialty group based in the Pikes Peak area. DaVita is a large, international provider of population health and dialysis services based in Denver.
- Colorado Springs Health Partners is a certified patient-centered medical home that has been recognized for its success in the Measure Up, Pressure Down project to control patients' blood pressure. It is also part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Collaborative Primary Care Initiative.
- HealthCare Partners is known for providing holistic care that includes clinical and economic accountability for its patient populations. They focus on clinical services of primary, specialty and hospital care for patients. They manage and operate medical groups in seven states and provide management of more than 800,000 managed care patients. The new purchase is not yet finalized and is expected to close by year's end.
Dive Insight:
This acquisition is part of a broad trend toward consolidation in the industry. Kaufman Hall has noted that mergers in the first quarter of 2014 were up 10% from the same time the previous year. Irving Levin Associates found that the number of hospitals and hospital beds taking part in deals in 2013 reached a five-year high.
How the mergers will impact the industry remains to be seen, but many insurers and other experts fear that consolidation, particularly in competitive markets, can increase costs by as much as 50%.
Also this week, the US Justice Department announced on Wednesday that DaVita Healthcare Partners has agreed to a $389-million settlement payment to resolve a criminal and civil anti-kickback investigation covering the last decade.