LifePoint Health Inc. has struck a deal to buy the majority of Louisville-based behavioral health provider Springstone, which runs 18 hospitals and 35 outpatient sites in nine states. Seller Medical Properties Trust Inc. will continue to own Springstone’s real estate as part of the deal that values Springstone’s operating company at $250 million.
Birmingham-based Medical Properties Trust last October completed with investment firm Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe a $950 million sale-leaseback deal for Springstone that included $190 million for a stake in the company’s operations. Nashville-headquartered LifePoint will pay Medical Properties Trust, from which it also leases eight acute-care hospitals, about $200 million for the latter business by early next year. It will then take over a network of facilities that employs more than 4,000 people and spans from the Seattle area to North Carolina with concentrations in Texas and Ohio and Indiana.
The transaction will significantly grow LifePoint’s behavioral health care footprint: Today, the company owns just three behavioral health hospitals although it also is a partner in numerous joint ventures through the Kindred businesses it acquired late last year. The company also owns 62 community hospital campuses, 31 rehabilitation hospitals and about 170 other sites of care.
“The need for greater access to behavioral health services continues to grow and is fundamental to our objective of providing diversified healthcare delivery services,” LifePoint Chairman and CEO David Dill said in a statement Aug. 29. “Adding the talented team at Springstone's depth of experience and platform for providing high-quality behavioral healthcare will accelerate our ability to broaden these crucial services for communities that need them.”
Springstone was founded in 2010 and is led by Philip Spencer, who also is CEO of management firm U.S. Behavioral Partners. In additional to traditional therapies, the company also uses yoga, art and recreational therapy.
