Dive Brief:
- HCA Healthcare has acquired Texas MedClinic, an urgent care operator with 40 facilities across Texas, as the for-profit hospital giant continues to expand.
- The deal closed at the beginning of August, according to press releases from Methodist Healthcare, a San Antonio-based system co-owned by HCA, and St. David’s HealthCare, a partnership between HCA and two Texas nonprofits.
- Methodist Healthcare nabbed 18 of Texas MedClinic’s urgent care facilities as part of the deal, while St. David’s HealthCare acquired 14 clinics. The remaining eight clinics have become part of HCA Houston Healthcare, which is fully owned by HCA. A spokesperson for HCA did not respond to a request for comment, including on the financial terms of the acquisition.
Dive Insight:
Texas MedClinic was founded in 1982 in San Antonio, and grew over the next four decades to provide urgent care in three of the state’s metropolitan areas. In 2022, the operator was bought by national clinic operator Community Care Partners.
Now, Texas MedClinic is changing hands again, joining for-profit healthcare giant HCA, which operates roughly 190 hospitals and 2,600 other sites of care in the U.S. and United Kingdom.
All 40 of Texas MedClinic’s locations have been rebranded under HCA’s CareNow division, which — after this buy — operates more than 430 clinics nationwide, with more than 190 in the state of Texas alone, according to a Monday LinkedIn post from Tyler Laymon, HCA’s vice president of strategic growth.
Eighteen of Texas MedClinic’s locations in the San Antonio area have transitioned to Methodist Healthcare, which is owned by HCA and faith-based nonprofit Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, and have been rebranded as CareNow Urgent Care.
Another 14 urgent care centers in Austin have moved to St. David’s, which is operated by HCA along with St. David’s Foundation and Georgetown Health Foundation, two nonprofits that fund community health and health equity initiatives in Central Texas. Those centers have been renamed St. David’s CareNow Urgent Care.
Hours, services and insurance coverage at the locations will remain the same, according to an FAQ posted on CareNow’s website.
Bringing Texas MedClinic’s facilities under HCA’s umbrella should expand access to urgent care for patients in Texas, according to CareNow. Americans are increasingly utilizing urgent care services, attracted by the promise of fast and convenient treatment that’s cheaper than an emergency room and easier to access than a primary care doctor.
The acquisition will also create new referral streams into HCA’s hospitals and specialty services, drumming up new revenue as the operator contends with a growing number of uninsured patients, Medicaid cuts, rising labor and supply costs, and other pressures facing U.S. hospitals.
“By aligning these urgent care clinics to HCA Healthcare, we are making it easier for patients to recognize and access the high-quality care they trust across our network,” Laymon wrote on LinkedIn.
It’s the latest in a string of acquisitions for HCA as the Nashville-based hospital giant looks to increase its offerings to meet consumer demand, especially in outpatient services. HCA has added a number of new urgent care facilities this year, including 17 urgent care clinics in North Carolina and South Carolina in June and another 13 facilities in Texas in February.
HCA has greenlit more than $7 billion in additional capital expenditures over the next three years, CEO Sam Hazen told investors last month.
