Dive Brief:
- CommonSpirit Health and AdventHealth on Monday announced Centura Health has folded, ending the joint business operation between the two hospital systems that spanned 27 years.
- The two hospital operators decided to dissolve Centura earlier this year after the management company reported flagging financials, including a loss of $7.5 million in 2020.
- CommonSpirit Health said it is now directly managing 20 hospitals and more than 240 care sites in Colorado, Kansas and Utah. AdventHealth is operating and rebranding five Colorado hospitals that were part of the Centura Health system.
Dive Insight:
AdventHealth and CommonSpirit joined together in 1996 to form Centura, a management company overseeing hospitals in Colorado and Kansas that later expanded to Utah.
Centura grew to become one of the largest hospital systems in Colorado. However, recently the company has struggled financially amid headwinds from COVID-19, including rising expenses.
In February, CommonSpirit and AdventHealth announced their intention to dissolve Centura. Following Monday’s announcement, the Centura Health logo, brand and name associated with the hospitals and care setting will transition to CommonSpirit Health or AdventHealth respectively, according to CommonSpirit’s statement, and will be retired over the next year.
The companies do not anticipate patient care will be disrupted in the transition. All insurance agreements, contact information and processes to schedule appointments will remain the same throughout the transition, CommonSpirit said.
Hospitals pursue joint ventures for many of the same reasons they undergo M&A, including shoring up operationally against macro pressures like inflation. Across the country, hospital mergers and acquisitions have been increasing as systems look to team up to negotiate better payer rates, navigate administrative burdens and streamline operating costs.
Both CommonSpirit and AdventHealth have backed out of other joint ventures recently as well.
In 2021, CommonSpirit disclosed it had sold part of its stake in an unnamed joint venture. That same year, AdventHealth unwound its Chicago joint operating company with St. Louis-based nonprofit Ascension.
