Trinity Health to Acquire MercyOne, Streamline Healthcare Access

Trinity Health and CommonSpirit Health have signed an agreement for Trinity Health to fully acquire Iowa-based health system MercyOne, aiming to streamline healthcare access for Iowa residents and surrounding communities.

MercyOne was founded in 1998 through a collaboration between two nonprofit Catholic healthcare organizations: Catholic Health Initiatives—now known as CommonSpirit Health—and Trinity Health.

The health system offers provider services and urgent care to more than 3.3 million patients each year through 16 medical centers, 27 affiliate organizations, and 420 care sites throughout Iowa.

Since its founding, MercyOne has operated under a joint agreement between CommonSpirit Health and Trinity Health. With the recent announcement, Trinity Health will acquire all MercyOne facilities and assets and become the sole owner.

“True to our shared Catholic mission, our goal is to provide high-quality, compassionate care with the best patient/member experience possible. We will accomplish that goal through a holistic approach, with a range of health services and technologies that are fully connected and coordinated,” Mike Slubowski, president and chief executive officer at Trinity Health, said in the press release.

“This agreement creates a fully integrated MercyOne to care for more people in a unified way.”

Following months of analysis, Trinity Health and CommonSpirit determined that the acquisition was the right decision. Marvin O’Quinn, president and chief executive officer of CommonSpirit, noted that the joint ownership was instrumental in growing their healthcare services in Iowa, but the sole ownership will best benefit MercyOne and its patient population.

Michigan-based Trinity Health operates 88 hospitals, 131 continuing care locations, and 125 urgent care locations across 25 states. With the complete acquisition of MercyOne, Trinity Health will integrate its unified strategies, operations, and system services into MercyOne’s care sites, the press release said.

MercyOne will transition to Trinity Health’s common platforms and adopt a single EHR system following the transaction. This will help streamline healthcare access for patients, as they can easily manage their care across all MercyOne facilities, the health systems said.

“We strongly believe this transition to become a full member of the Trinity Health family will result in a stronger, more cohesive health system better able to offer a convenient and personalized circle of care for all we serve,” Bob Ritz, president and chief executive officer at MercyOne, stated in the press release.

“We are delighted to have the agreement in place as we plan for the future of our mission. We are grateful to CommonSpirit for more than 20 years of partnership.”

The next steps require Trinity Health and CommonSpirit to plan for integration and complete regulatory filings. The health systems aim to finalize Trinity Health’s acquisition of MercyOne during the summer of 2022.

The organizations stated that the acquisition process would not disrupt care for MercyOne patients.

New data from CMS revealed that medium and large hospitals with low profit margins were most likely to get acquired between 2016 and 2021.

However, healthcare merger and acquisition activity stalled slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic and hit a record low during the first quarter of 2022.

In addition, healthcare mergers have faced significant legal pushback in 2022.

For example, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in February to block the merger between UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and Change Healthcare. DOJ stated that the transaction would hurt competition in the commercial health insurance and healthcare technology markets.

New Jersey-based hospitals Hackensack Meridian Health and Englewood Health recently terminated their merger agreement after a federal appeals court ruled against the deal and claimed it would increase healthcare costs for consumers.