Plan for Prisma Health to acquire Providence is off, hospital says
A deal for Prisma Health to take over Providence hospitals is off the table after a year.
Prisma Health will not acquire Providence Health in Columbia or Providence Health Northeast in northeast Columbia, both of which are operated by the Tennessee-based LifePoint Health.
“While both parties anticipated that the acquisition would have a complex regulatory path, significant delays and challenges with the Federal Trade Commission and state regulatory authorities have made it prohibitive to move forward,” a spokesperson for Prisma Health said in a statement.
With the failure of the deal, Prisma Health also will not acquire KershawHealth in Camden or a freestanding emergency room in Fairfield County.
Prisma Health began the acquisition in March 2020. If the deal had gone through, Prisma Health, whose corporate headquarters is in Greenville, would have been the only full-service hospital operator in Richland County. Lexington Medical Center is in neighboring Lexington County.
Local lawmakers pounced on Prisma as soon as it announced the attempted takeover last year, saying the merger would lead to layoffs, economic fallout and worse care.
Governments of Kershaw, Fairfield and Lexington counties as well as the City of Columbia were leery of the deal too, asking Prisma to “slow down” its acquisition until the impacts on health care could be better understood.
Federal and state regulators complicated the deal with concerns over Prisma Health violating antitrust laws.
“Both companies continue to stand by their initial vision for this transaction,” Prisma Health’s spokesperson said in the statement. “However, they have determined it is in the best interests of all organizations involved, their employees, and those they serve, to end their pursuit of this acquisition.”
Prisma Health was formed in November 2017 after Midlands-based Palmetto Health and the Greenville Health System merged to create the largest health system in South Carolina with 18 hospitals.
Providence was Columbia’s Catholic hospital for 77 years until LifePoint Health of Tennessee purchased it in 2015.
Prisma also has been adding other local health care offices recently, including several smaller, family practices. In October 2019, Prisma purchased Columbia Heart, adding its 15 cardiologists to the company.
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 11:53 AM.