UCI Health to Buy Four Tenet Healthcare Hospitals in SoCal for Nearly $1B
By Nick Trombola February 6, 2024 1:18 pm
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The doctors will see you now — or at least they will later this spring once Tenet Healthcare’s nearly $1 billion sale of four Southern California hospitals goes through.
The Dallas-based health care giant announced last week that it entered into an agreement with UCI Health for the four hospitals, and “related operations” in Orange and Los Angeles counties, for roughly $975 million in cash. The deal will include Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, Lakewood Regional Medical Center, Los Alamitos Medical Center, and Placentia-Linda Hospital. The sale is expected to close in the coming months, though it is subject to clearances and regulatory approvals.
“Our four hospitals have provided high-quality care for Orange County and Los Angeles County residents for over 50 years,” Dr. Saum Sutaria, chairman and CEO of Tenet, said in a statement. “UCI Health is an innovative academic health system with a deep commitment to enabling accessibility to world-class academic medicine closer to home. Integrating these hospitals into their system will meaningfully enhance access to the benefits of university medicine.”
UCI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The hospitals together generated about $1 billion in revenue in 2023, along with about $71 million in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, according to Tenet. The sale of the hospitals to UCI is part of Tenet’s strategy to reduce its financial leverage, per Tenet.
Tenet’s move to sell the California hospitals comes a few months after its sale of three South Carolina hospitals and related operations to Novant Health to the tune of $2.4 billion. That deal was for Hilton Head Hospital in Beaufort County, Coastal Carolina Hospital in Jasper County, and East Cooper Medical Center in Charleston County.
Despite the divestments, Tenet remains one of the largest health care providers in the country. Its network includes United Surgical Partners International, which owns or operates over 480 ambulatory surgical centers across the U.S., as well as about 160 outpatient facilities and 58 specialty and acute care hospitals.
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
