Dive Brief:
- Tenet Health's brief foray into the UK hospital market ended with the completion of its sale of London-based Aspen Healthcare to NMC Healthcare UK Limited, announced on Monday. NMC, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, previously purchased a Spanish fertility clinic.
- Dallas-based Tenet acquired Aspen from Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in 2015 for $215 million. The company operates nine healthcare facilities in England and Scotland.
- The deal — terms of which were not disclosed — continues a string of divestitures as Tenet works to pay down debt and adjust to the wider industry shift to outpatient care settings and lower hospital reimbursements.
Dive Insight:
While some health systems like Cleveland Clinic and UPMC are branching out overseas, Tenet is extending its divestitures to its foreign enterprises.
At the close of the 2018 second quarter, the for-profit health system had $14.2 billion in long-term debt — down from $14.8 billion at the end of last year. Tenet officials told investors in an earnings call earlier this month that the company expects to reap $100 million in divestitures this year.
In July, Tenet inked an agreement to sell its three remaining Chicago-area hospitals to Pipeline Health and TWG Partners, a Chicago-based healthcare investment firm. That deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, will net Tenet $70 billion. The company first signaled it intention to exit the Chicago market last fall with a definitive agreement to sell MacNeal Hospital and related operations to Loyola Medicine.
Tenet could also part ways with its healthcare management subsidiary, Conifer Health Solutions. UnitedHealth is among several entities reportedly eyeing the unit, which had $1.6 billion in revenue in 2017 — about 8% of Tenet’s total revenue for the year.
For the second quarter, the system reported net operating revenue of $3.73 billion, down 8.6% from the same period a year ago. However, same-hospital net patient revenue increased 3.2% year over year to $3.43 billion. Total admissions decreased by 2.3% to 168,453, while revenue per adjusted admission grew 3.5%, due to higher acuity rates.