Saint Peter's signs definitive agreement to join Atlantic Health

Saint Peter's Healthcare System has signed a definitive agreement to join Atlantic Health System. 

If the deal is approved by regulators and the Catholic Church, Morristown, New Jersey-headquartered Atlantic would become Saint Peter's "sole corporate member," according to a Tuesday news release.

Related: Saint Peter's Healthcare, Atlantic Health move toward merger

The organizations declined to provide financial details of the deal.

The deal would bring capital investments to New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Saint Peter's infrastructure and outpatient services, the news release said. St. Peter's would also implement an Epic electronic health record. 

Atlantic and Saint Peter's announced in January they signed a letter of intent to form a strategic partnership with the goal of merging. The systems said then they expected the deal to close in the coming months, but did not provide more details.

Atlantic, which reported $514.8 million in net assets in 2023, serves 7.5 million people in New Jersey through seven hospitals and more than 550 care sites.

Saint Peter's is the last independently operated health system in Middlesex County, with a 478-bed acute care teaching hospital, a children's hospital and a regional perinatal center. It reported $61 million in net assets last year.

Saint Peter's has been seeking strategic partnerships for several years. In 2019, it signed an integration agreement with West Orange, New Jersey-based RWJBarnabas Health, but the deal was called off in 2022 after the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit to block the proposed transaction.