Prime Healthcare is making its first foray into Illinois with the acquisition of nine Ascension hospitals, as well as several post-acute and senior living facilities, the health care groups announced on Thursday.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Prime, based in Ontario, California, said the acquisition will be the largest in its history. It also plans to invest $250 million to upgrade Ascension’s facilities, technology and systems.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, pending regulatory approvals. Until then, Prime and the Ascension facilities will operate independently.
Prime will acquire: Ascension Resurrection and Ascension Saint Mary and Saint Elizabeth in Chicago; Ascension Saint Francis in Evanston; Ascension Holy Family in Des Plaines; Ascension Mercy in Aurora; Ascension Saint Joseph in Joliet; Ascension Saint Joseph in Elgin; and Ascension Saint Mary in Kankakee.
The post-acute and senior living facilities sold by Ascension are Fox Knoll Village in Aurora Villa, Franciscan Place in Joliet, Heritage Village and Heritage Lodge in Kankakee and Resurrection Place in Park Ridge.
Prime spokesperson Elizabeth Nikels said the company plans to offer employment to “substantially all” Ascension staff, but they must reapply for their jobs, as required under the ownership change. The hiring process will be streamlined through an online application system, Nikels said.
For-profit group Prime operates 44 hospitals in 14 states and nearly 45,000 employees.
Eight of the Ascension Illinois hospitals it’s buying will become for-profit while Ascension Saint Francis will remain a nonprofit under Prime Healthcare Foundation.
Ascension, based in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the largest Catholic and nonprofit health systems in the U.S. It operates in 19 states and Washington D.C. and has 140 hospitals and a workforce of more than 134,000. In Illinois, it operates 150 sites of care and more than a dozen hospitals in Illinois.
But the health care group has faced financial struggles and other challenges, including a ransomware attack in May that forced computer systems offline and diverted ambulances away from some of its emergency departments, including one in the Chicago area.
This spring about 500 nurses at Ascension Saint Joseph Hospital in Joliet reached a contract agreement, after a year of negotiations and going on strike three times since August 2023.
“The American healthcare system is experiencing unprecedented operational and financial challenges, and Ascension is no exception to these larger trends,” Liz Foshage, chief financial officer at Ascension, said in an earnings statement in September. “The after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, continued healthcare worker staffing shortages, ongoing supply chain challenges and persistent inflation were headwinds we faced throughout the last fiscal year.”
In May, Ascension reported income from recurring operations of $15 million for the nine months ending March 31, compared to a $1.1 billion loss for the same period last year.