Catholic Health Initiatives is exploring a clinical affiliation with Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
The parties signed a letter of intent and expect to finalize negotiations within 90 days, according to a statement from CHI.
The statement said no other details would be available before then and described the alliance as an “enhanced academic affiliation and clinical partnership.”
Denver-based CHI has been building a network in Houston after signing a deal in April to buy six-hospital St. Luke's Episcopal Health System. Last month, the system said it had entered into negotiations to explore a partnership with the Texas Heart Institute, which had sued St. Luke's after the CHI deal, alleging that it was deprived of necessary funding.
As part of the CHI partnership, Texas Heart agreed to drop its legal action.
Baylor itself once explored a merger with St. Luke's in 2005, but the deal never came to fruition. Two years later, then-CEO Dr. Peter Traber told Modern Healthcare that the two systems had different strategies—Baylor wanted to build an academic medical center to serve its faculty, students and residents, while St. Luke's wanted to expand into Houston's suburbs.
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