Struggling Community Health Systems has agreed to sell five hospitals in Pennsylvania to the not-for-profit Reading Health System.
The five hospitals are part of the 30 hospitals that Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS has agreed to sell to reduce a $15 billion debt burden. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
They are169-bed Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville, 148-bed Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia, 63-bed Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, 151-bed Phoenixville Hospital in Phoenixville and 232-bed Pottstown Memorial Medical Center in Pottstown.
Earlier this year, CHS agreed to sell two other of its hospitals in Pennsylvania to Boston-based Steward Health Care System as part of an eight-hospital deal.
CHS is selling hospitals with single-digit operating margins to improve its earnings and raise money to pay down its outsized debt.
The system, the nation's second-largest investor-owned hospital company with 146 hospitals, posted a net loss of $1.7 billion in 2016.
