St. Joseph Mercy Health System completes acquisition of Michigan Heart
St. Joseph Mercy Health System said today that it had finalized its acquisition of Superior Township-based cardiovascular practice Michigan Heart PC, a deal first announced in November.
SJMHS plans to keep Michigan Heart's 326 employees and its eight locations, officials said.
Michigan Heart, which has 33 physicians, serves some 60,000 patients. Those patients can continue to see their doctors and are unlikely to notice much of a change after the acquisition, executives said in November.
The deal comes days after SJMHS finalized its acquisition of Ann Arbor-based physician network Integrated Healthcare Associates, which has 260,000 patients.
Collectively, both deals reflect SJMHS' decision to expand its footprint in the wake of federal health care reform, which gives incentives to health care organizations that better coordinate patient care. St. Joe's is also in discussions with Evangelical Homes of Michigan about a possible partnership with the nonprofit to improve treatment of long-term care residents and appeal to federal health care reform funding rules.
SJMHS said in a news release today that its acquisition of Michigan Heart would "improve patient-centered care, clinical quality and create more access to cost effective health care for all."
Officials declined to release details of the acquisition. SJMHS is a division of Catholic health care group Trinity Health.
As part of the transition, Michigan Heart CEO Keith Burmeister was named vice president of clinical service lines for Saint Joseph Mercy Health System. He will continue to oversee cardiology services and will also lead the system's orthopedics and oncology services.
Michigan Heart was already referring many patients to St. Joe's hospitals. The Michigan Heart brand was formed in 1994 as the result of a merger between two independent practices, Cardiology Associates of Southern Michigan and Ann Arbor Cardiology Consultants. One of those practices dates back 40 years.
Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter, follow him on Tumblr and subscribe to AnnArbor.com's free newsletters.
Comments
Veracity
Thu, Jan 6, 2011 : 3:11 p.m.
I do not know why AlphaAlpha believes that this purchase increases competition. He/She is correct that people are only "patients" to physicians and "customers" to everyone else. The latter designation most appropriately reflects the impersonal business relationship, unfortunately. If this country ever adopts an enlightened health care system similar to those in other developed countries around the world, then maybe the "customer" moniker will be eliminated.
Pablo
Tue, Jan 4, 2011 : 10:15 a.m.
Since St. Joe's is a non-profit entity, can you tell us what was the purchase price for this private practice which they purchased?
AlphaAlpha
Tue, Jan 4, 2011 : 6:31 a.m.
Thank you Mr. Bomey. Toward the appropriate goal of enlightened, empowered medical consumers, many believe it best to replace the antiquated word 'patients' with the more appropriate word 'customers'. Recognizing medical 'practices' as the businesses they are brings us one step closer to a less costly, more competitive, health care industry. Customers will benefit from greater competition.