St. Louis-based Ascension Health and Prime Healthcare Services have a definitive agreement for Prime Healthcare to buy two hospitals in or near Kansas City, Mo., that are part of Ascension's Carondelet Health. The facilities are St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City and St. Mary's Medical Center in Blue Springs, Mo. The systems announced the agreement on Oct. 14. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Carondelet Health's three long-term care facilities — Carondelet Manor, Villa Saint Joseph and St. Mary's Manor — and the two hospitals' charitable foundations will remain part of Ascension through Ascension Health Senior Care.
Robert J. Henkel, executive vice president of the Ascension parent company and president and chief executive of Ascension Health, said in a statement, "This agreement strengthens the ministry and ensures that its caring associates and physicians will be able to continue to meet the health care needs of the community."
The transaction is subject to regulatory and Vatican approvals, the systems said.
In 2012, Carondelet Health said it was in discussions with other health systems on a potential partnership, joint venture or merger. At the time, then Carondelet Health Chief Executive Fleury Yelvington said that while Carondelet has been involved in such conversations in the past, the discussions intensified due to upcoming health care reform measures and the myriad of other reimbursement and care delivery issues that would change the way hospitals operate.
In a Jan. 31 statement this year, Ascension Health and HCA Midwest Health System, which was already the Kansas City area's largest health care provider, ended talks of an Ascension Health sale of the two hospitals to HCA, saying the deal wasn't going to get timely approval from the Federal Trade Commission.