Ascension completes Marian Health acquisition

Ascension Health, St. Louis, has completed its deal to acquire Marian Health System, the Tulsa, Okla.-based provider with three regional divisions.

Financial terms were not disclosed for the deal, which includes Marian's Ministry Health Care, Milwaukee; St. John Health System, Tulsa; and Via Christi Health, Wichita, Kan., which has been 50% owned by Ascension since 2007.

The deal adds 16 hospitals to Ascension's 77. Ascension will also assume Marian's roughly $1.4 billion in debt. Marian had about $150 million in net income in fiscal 2011.

The parties disclosed in September that they had signed a memorandum of understanding, capping off Marian's two-year search for a partner. The system chose Ascension from a group of two or three finalists, and talks progressed for about a year before a deal was signed.

As part of the deal closing, Sister Therese Gottschalk, Marian's president and CEO, will become executive adviser to the president and CEO of Ascension Health. She will continue to serve on the boards of Marian's three regional systems.

In addition, Nicholas Desien, now president and CEO of Ministry Health Care, will also serve as Ascension Health Ministry market leader for Wisconsin, Kanas and Oklahoma.

Ascension, already the largest Catholic and not-for-profit health system, has been steadily increasing its clout. The hospital group in December forged a formal agreement to take over six-hospital Daughters of Charity Health System, Los Altos Hills, Calif., after signing a memorandum of understanding in March 2012.