The 43rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, commonly known as JPM, will feature presentations from more than 500 private and public companies, focusing on hospital mergers and acquisitions, insurers’ financial performance and other topics. Attendees will hear healthcare companies' investment strategies. Security has been increased following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last month at the insurer's investor day in New York and other recent attacks.
Follow here for live updates throughout the day or catch up on our coverage.
- Day 1
- Day 3
6:45 p.m. - GE HealthCare to use $1B Sutter Health deal as framework for future partnerships
GE HealthCare CEO Peter Arduini called the $1 billion partnership deal with Sutter Health a framework for future deals the company plans to pursue in the U.S. and abroad.
“The Sutter deal is a great example of the capabilities of the team that we have and how we can work with a customer hand in hand to be able to solve their problems jointly,” he said. “We think this is just the beginning of some great opportunities that we can expand throughout the world.”
He said the deal, announced Tuesday, amounts to $1 billion in incremental growth over the next seven years, evenly split between a combination of services and equipment. The company will refresh Sutter's full fleet of imaging equipment and keep the health system current on new technologies that come to market, including artificial intelligence tools.
General Electric spun off GE HealthCare in January 2023, and the company has since made 120 partnership deals with health systems worth about $4 billion, Catherine Estrampes, president and CEO of GE HealthCare U.S. and Canada, said in late November.
— Lauren Dubinsky
5:30 p.m. - Ardent Health seeks more ambulatory care expansion
Ardent Health is doubling down on its urgent care expansion strategy, and CEO Marty Bonick said Tuesday the for-profit system is starting to see the benefits.
Bonick said urgent care centers typically bring margins in the mid-teens.
Brentwood, Tennessee-based Ardent completed an initial public offering in July and expressed its intent to buy urgent care locations in an initial post-IPO push to attract new patients.
About 45% of patients at six urgent care centers Ardent acquired last year in east Texas were new to the Ardent system, Bonick said Tuesday. About 15% returned to an Ardent facility for follow-up care within 30 days, he added.
Ardent added nine urgent care centers in 2024. In January, it announced the acquisition of 18 centers in New Mexico and Oklahoma.
The system is also interested in investing in freestanding emergency departments, ambulatory surgery centers and microhospitals in the coming years, Bonick said.
— Caroline Hudson