The University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, and Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health are in talks to create a regional health system serving Northern Virginia.
The two systems have signed a nonbinding letter of intent to create a joint venture that would include UVA Culpeper Hospital and all of Novant's operations in Virginia, including Haymarket (Va.) Medical Center; Prince William Medical Center, Manassas, Va.; and Novant Health Cancer Center, Gainesville, Va. UVA and Novant hope to close the deal by June 30.
UVA's subspecialty cancer-care services are an important part of the deal. Officials are discussing ways that the systems could integrate or coordinate cancer care across Northern Virginia and improve access to UVA cancer care and clinical trials.
Hospitals would continue to directly employ their existing staff members under the proposed agreement. Discussions are expected to continue over the next few months and the final details of the deal are expected to be released in July.
Banner Health's merger with the University of Arizona Health Network in February has sparked speculation that more academic medical centers may take advantage of mergers and other types of deals to survive amid rising costs and a rapidly changing industry. Emory Healthcare and WellStar Health System are in talks to create a new combined organization encompassing all of their hospitals and post-acute assets in the Atlanta area.
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