Bon Secours affiliate HealthSpan to acquire Surgery Partners for $5.7 billion

HealthSpan Partners, an affiliate of Bon Secours Mercy Health, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Surgery Partners.

The all-cash deal has an enterprise value of approximately $5.7 billion.

The collaboration between HealthSpan and Surgery Partners will establish one of the largest outpatient surgical care platforms in the U.S., the organizations said in a joint press release.

Surgery Partners’ national network includes ambulatory surgery centers, surgical hospitals, multi-specialty physician practices, and urgent care facilities. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based company has more than 200 locations in 30 states and approximately 5,000 affiliated physicians. Key specialties include orthopedic and spinal care, cardiology, gastroenterology, and ophthalmology.

Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health is a not-for-profit Catholic health system with more than 1,200 sites of care across the U.S. and Ireland, including 47 hospitals, according to the health system’s website.

Bon Secours’ president and CEO, John Starcher Jr., said:

“As healthcare continues to evolve, it is important to grow in ways that allow us to serve more people, in more communities and through a broader range of care settings. Our relationship with Surgery Partners represents an important step toward advancing that commitment.

“Surgery Partners has built a respected national platform rooted in strong physician relationships and a commitment to quality care. By combining those strengths with HealthSpan Partners’ long-term stewardship approach, we have an opportunity to strengthen access to more affordable care [and] support more patients and communities while continuing to advance our mission for years to come.”

Eric Evans, Surgery Partners’ CEO, said:

“HealthSpan Partners recognizes the significant value that our physician partners and our colleagues have created for the communities we serve. We believe this transaction represents the best path forward for Surgery Partners, delivering an attractive all-cash premium to our shareholders while creating lasting benefits for our patients, physicians, and other stakeholders.”

Most Surgery Partners shareholders will receive $23.50 in cash per share. Bain Capital Private Equity affiliates, who own approximately 39% of Surgery Partners’ outstanding shares, will roll over their shares in exchange for equity interests in the acquiring entity.

Bon Secours Mercy Health will use a combination of cash on hand and new debt to fund the transaction.

Surgery Partners will become a privately held organization, retaining its name, brand, and headquarters after the deal has been completed, Becker’s Hospital Review reported. it will also retain its secular status.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of shareholders and regulatory authorities. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.

Our Take: Bon Secours Mercy Health is the latest of several health systems to make major investments in ambulatory surgery centers.

Ascension completed its $3.9 billion acquisition of Nashville, Tenn.-based AmSurg in June, making the nonprofit Catholic health system the third-largest operator of ASCs in the U.S., with a network of more than 300 ASCs in 35 states.

Tenet Healthcare’s network is the largest, with 533 ASCs and 26 surgical hospitals as of the end of 2025. Tenet gained most of the ASCs through a series of big-ticket transactions that gradually increased its ownership stake in United Surgical Partners International.

SCA Health, previously known as Surgical Care Affiliates and now a subsidiary of Optum, has the second-largest network, with more than 340 clinical locations. Optum acquired Surgical Care Affiliates in 2017 for approximately $2.3 billion.

Lacking the capital to make such large acquisitions, smaller and regional health systems are establishing joint ventures and other alliances for increased access to ASCs.  

For instance, Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine entered into a partnership in September with Independence Blue Cross and Nashville, Tenn.-based Regent Surgical. The organizations will launch a new company to support the creation of at least 18 ambulatory surgery centers in Penn Medicine’s service area.

And earlier this year, Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health formed a joint venture with Atlas Healthcare Partners, which operates 49 ASCs in seven states. The joint venture plans to develop and operate a network of more than 15 ASCs in South Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, and surrounding regions.

HCR #223: Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO, Optum

In 2012, almost no Medicare payments were tied to value. By early 2016, more than 30% were. Dr. Patrick Conway helped build that shift at CMS, and now, as CEO of Optum, he has to make it work for millions of commercial patients. He sits down with John to talk about why Optum drifted from its original model while chasing growth and how it found its way back, where AI is already taking over routine work like prior authorization, and why getting patients to take part in their own care remains the hardest unsolved problem in value-based care. They also get into what pharma can do to be a better partner on affordability. On Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all podcast platforms.

What else you need to know

Walmart is expanding its Better Care Services, a digital platform launched at the start of this year to make healthcare “easier and more affordable.” Walmart describes the platform as a marketplace of third-party providers. Initially, the network included urgent care and behavioral health providers. The platform also featured access to LillyDirect, Eli Lilly’s direct-to-patient pharmacy platform, and an AI-driven nutrition hub that delivers personalized recommendations.

Walmart is partnering with San Francisco-based General Medicine, who will provide technology for the expansion. Founded by former PillPack and Amazon Pharmacy executives and launched in May 2025, General Medicine bills itself as a “healthcare store” that lets customers ask health questions and request virtual or in-person care consultations, including with specialists. General Medicine provides both insurance and cash pricing.

Walmart said in a press release that General Medicine makes Better Care Services “more shoppable by bringing services from several third-party providers into a single catalog where customers can compare options, evaluate costs, and choose the care that works best for them.” Walmart specified urgent care, pediatric care, mental health care, nutrition services, and weight-management support as the available services and providers in Better Care Services’ expanded marketplace, noting that it plans to add more providers over time.

CMS finalized the mandatory GLOBE drug payment model as the agency seeks to implement international reference pricing for drugs paid for under Medicare Part B. The scope of the model has been “dramatically reduced,” according to the authors of a recent blog post published by Health Affairs. Notably, they wrote, CMS has scaled the model downward to an estimated 3% of eligible Part B drug spending and just four (or potentially fewer) manufacturers. Drugs sold by manufacturers who have signed agreements with the Trump administration and are participating in the voluntary GENEROUS Medicaid pricing model are excluded from the GLOBE model. Accordingly, CMS now estimates that GLOBE will save the federal government $440 million, or roughly 3.7% of the $11.9 billion in savings originally estimated. (A link to the final rule in the Federal Register is available in this CMS press release. Details of the GLOBE model are available here.)  

Mass General Brigham (MGB) will start restructuring its Home Hospital program this month, with the goal of offering “a more focused, sustainable service that prioritizes higher-acuity patients and continues to serve patients for years to come,” a spokesperson told Becker’s Hospital Review. Specifically, the restructured program will focus on patients who require hospital admission from the emergency departments at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The spokesperson explained that a lot of the program’s growth occurred at MGB’s community hospitals and involved moving patients from one lower-acuity setting to another. Meanwhile, MGB’s academic medical centers have experienced “extreme crowding” in their emergency departments and demand for inpatient care “that far exceeds capacity.” In addition to addressing those issues, the redesigned home health model will include changes to care delivery as well as updated supervisory and administrative roles, Becker’s reported.  

The University of Texas at Austin introduced UT Dell Medicine, a unified academic health system that will serve as the evolution of UT Health Austin. The future $5 billion UT Dell Medical Center, slated to open in 2030, will be the flagship of UT Dell Medicine.

Touted as the nation’s first AI-native hospital, the new medical center will focus on cancer, cardiovascular, neurological, transplant, and advanced intensive care, with physicians from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center embedded directly in care delivery. When UT Dell Medicine is fully operational, the health system plans to double its clinical capability and more than triple its patient volumes.

A new coalition has formed to advocate for access to specialty pharmacies. The Specialty Access Alliance, which consists of patients, caregivers, pharmacy experts, physicians, and other stakeholders, seeks to support patients treated with specialty medications by helping policymakers understand the real-world experience of specialty care, according to the coalition’s website.

The organization released a report describing the essential role specialty pharmacies play and the distinct services specialty pharmacies provide. The report also presents key findings about patients who rely on specialty pharmacy care, how specialty pharmacies help patients contend with the obstacles they face in accessing care, and how specialty pharmacy care improves outcomes.

Executive moves

Kevin Sowers will retire as president of John Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, both based in Baltimore, at the end of next year. He has held the dual role since 2018. Before that, Sowers was at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System for 32 years, the last eight as president and CEO of Duke University Hospital. Johns Hopkins Medicine’s board of trustees and CEO Theodore DeWeese will conduct a national search for Sowers’ successor.  

Premier Health has appointed Rosanna Morris as its next president and CEO, effective early next year. She will succeed Michael Riordan, who is retiring. The board of the Dayton, Ohio-based health system conducted a national search before selecting Morris, who currently serves as executive vice president and chief clinical operating officer at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Riordan has led Premier Health for five years, according to a news release.

CSL has named Deborah Waterhouse as its next CEO and managing director. Waterhouse has been CEO of ViiV Healthcare, a joint venture between GSK and Shionogi, since 2017, and she also serves as president of GSK Global Health. Before that, she held various senior executive positions at GSK. Waterhouse’s tenure at Melbourne, Australia-based CSL will begin Feb. 1, 2027. In the meantime, Gordon Naylor will continue to serve as interim CEO and managing director. Lynn Baxter, the current president of GSK Europe, will take over Waterhouse’s roles at ViiV Healthcare and GSK.

What we’re reading

Can Real-World Evidence Reliably Fill Evidence Gaps In Accelerated Approval? Health Affairs Forefront, 10.13.26

Clinician Use of an Artificial Intelligence–Enabled Clinical Information Platform. JAMA, 10.15.26 (subscription required)

Ambient AI as a Tool for Returning Time to Care. NEJM Catalyst, 10.23.26 (subscription required for full article)