HMA to acquire 60% stake in three Fla. hospitals

Health Management Associates, Naples, Fla., has agreed to acquire a 60% interest in three rural Florida hospitals operated by Shands HealthCare, Gainesville, Fla. Shands will retain a 40% interest. Financial terms of the definitive agreement were not disclosed. HMA said it expects the deal to close by July 1.

The hospitals are 85-bed Shands Lake Shore, Lake City; 25-bed Shands Starke (Fla.); and 15-bed Shands Live Oak (Fla.), and their combined annual net revenue is about $100 million, HMA said. While HMA would take operational control of the hospitals, each hospital would have a local advisory board consisting of local physicians and community leaders as well as HMA and Shands management, HMA said.

Shands, which confirmed the deal on its website, will retain full ownership in its large medical centers in Gainesville and Jacksonville, Fla.

HMA's first joint venture with a not-for-profit came in 2005, when it agreed to purchase 80% of a St. Cloud, Fla., hospital from Orlando (Fla.) Regional Healthcare. In 2008, it formed a joint venture with Novant Health, Winston-Salem, N.C., by selling the not-for-profit system a minority stake in seven hospitals.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions this year of not-for-profit hospitals by investor-owned companies. (For more on the subject, please see Capital crisis, which appeared April 5 in Modern Healthcare.)

Proceeds from the sale could help fund Shands' recently announced $580 million plan for its partnership with the University of Florida Health Sciences Center.