Atrium Health, Wake Forest Baptist Health Finalize Merger

Atrium Health recently announced the completion of a healthcare merger deal with Wake Forest Baptist Health to create a “next-generation academic health system.”

The health systems agreed to merge last year. Now, Atrium Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health, including Wake Forest School of Medicine, are officially joined as a single enterprise known as Atrium Health, the health system headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina said in the announcement released late last week.

The Atrium Health operates 42 hospitals and more than 1,500 care locations across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. It is expected to have over $11 billion in combined net revenue, according to reports.

“As the healthcare field goes through the most transformative period in our lifetime, in addition to a new medical school, our vision is to build a ‘Silicon Valley’ for healthcare innovation spanning from Winston-Salem to Charlotte,” Eugene A. Woods, president and CEO of the new Atrium Health, said in the announcement.

Woods was the leader of Atrium Health prior to the merger. His counterpart at Wake Forest Baptist Health, Julie Ann Freischlag, MD, was named chief academic officer at the new organization. Freischlag also serves as the dean of Wake Forest School of Medicine.

“The impact of the strategic combination will be far-reaching, elevating North Carolina as a clear destination of choice to receive medical care for people all across the nation,” said Freischlag. “Through our combined, nationally recognized clinical centers of excellence in multiple specialties, we will be able to expand our research in signature areas, such as cancer, cardiovascular, regenerative medicine and aging, and target bringing research breakthroughs to the community in less than half the time of the national average.”

Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest School of Medicine will be the “academic core” of Atrium Health, with the newly combined health system expanding the school of medicine through a second campus in Charlotte, according to the announcement.

The campus will make Atrium Health one of the largest educators of physicians and other medical professionals in the state, with over 3,500 total students and more than 100 specialized programs, said Nathan O. Hatch, PhD, president of Wake Forest University.

“With this combination, we are creating the future of medical education,” stated Hatch.

The new health system will also focus on advancing large, multi-site, patient-centered research, including in the fields of health aging, mobility, and Alzheimer’s disease, the announcement stated. Its efforts will be supported by over $300 million a year in external funding for research.

As part of its mission to create a next-generation academic health system, the new Atrium Health also plans to invest in a Translational Research and Population Health Center in Winston-Salem, establish a new Eye Institute in Winston-Salem's Innovation Quarter, and construct a new critical care, emergency department and surgery tower at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Additionally, the new health system also intends to expand virtual care capabilities, including behavioral health via telemedicine, and provide care as the largest provider for Medicaid recipients and other underserved populations across North Carolina.

Atrium Health committed to providing 50 percent more Medicaid services than any other provider in North Carolina. It will also provide over $5 million a day in charity care and other benefits to the community to eliminate care disparities, especially among rural and urban patients and racial disparities.

More healthcare mergers are trying to transform the delivery of care in their communities, according to Anu Singh, managing director and leader of the Mergers, Acquisitions & Partnerships practice at Kaufman Hall.

Singh’s firm recently put out a report showing that healthcare merger and acquisition activity in the third quarter of 2020 increased compared to the previous quarter and was on par with historical third-quarter activity despite the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency.

“The pandemic may be acting as a catalyst for larger strategic partnerships and tactical transactions,” Singh recently told RevCycleIntelligence. “We anticipate that the ongoing financial pressures of the pandemic will only strengthen the need for partnerships, with new opportunities emerging in the months ahead.”