From Amazon to CVS Health, here are five major healthcare deals in 2022 that are shifting the industry:
1. Although the deal is currently under review by the state of Oregon, Amazon announced in July that it plans to acquire One Medical, primary care company, for $3.9 billion.
The deal could raise costs for all medical groups and further alter the dynamics of physician recruiting and acquisitions, according to a Forbes report. Independent physicians should be prepared for "an entirely new dynamic" when it comes to prospective buyers, the report said. The new market will include unconventional buyers, such as larger retail companies. There will also be a push toward consolidation as more buyers look to buy physician practices.
2. On Sept. 5, CVS Health entered a deal to acquire home health company Signify Health for $8 billion, a move that marks the company's efforts to expand its value-based care offerings. Signify's value-based provider network includes 50 health plan clients and members, which expanded after it acquired Caravan Health in March 2022.
UnitedHealth Group, Amazon and Option Care Health all made bids for the company, but CVS Health came out on top with the highest bid, adding more than 10,000 clinicians to CVS Health's portfolio.
3. In September, Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health completed its acquisition of MercyOne, five months after entering into an agreement with Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health.
MercyOne was founded in 1998 through a collaboration between Catholic Health Initiatives, now CommonSpirit, and Trinity Health. The system reports annual revenues of $3 billion, according to Kaufman Hall.
4. In November, primary care disruptor VillageMD agreed to acquire physician practice group Summit Health in a transaction valued at roughly $8.9 billion. The deal combines Village Practice Management with Summit Health, the parent company of CityMD urgent-care centers. While still subject for review, the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.
Village MD is majority owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, who has invested $3.5 billion, through a mix of debt and equity, to support the acquisition.
5. On Dec. 2, Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health, dually headquartered in Downers Grove, Ill., and Milwaukee, closed on their formal combination, resulting in a newly combined $27 billion, 67-hospital system called Advocate Health.
Atrium and Advocate Aurora announced their plan to combine May 11, creating the fifth-largest nonprofit health system in the U.S.
"This will create one of the most effective large systems in the country," Becker's Healthcare Publisher Scott Becker said. "It both brings together two great systems and two exceptional leaders in Jim Skogsbergh and Gene Woods. This merger may also be the clearest indication that bigger systems are needed to provide care and offset the power of the payers."