Steward acquiring Tennessee health provider

Steward owns Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer.

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By Laura Finaldi

Steward Health Care, which operates the Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and the Central Massachusetts Independent Physicians Association, on Friday announced plans to acquire a Tennessee-based hospital operator, making it the largest private for-profit hospital operator in the United States.

The transaction would double the number of hospitals currently operated by Steward, according to the company. If the transaction is approved through regulatory processes, the Boston-based hospital network will operate 36 hospitals across 10 states, managed care operations in Arizona, Utah and Massachusetts, and bring in projected annual revenues of nearly $8 billion in 2018. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017.

Steward currently operates 18 hospitals and employs more than 1,300 multi-specialty physicians in Massachusetts, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, including Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. It announced plans to acquire the 200-member Central Massachusetts Independent Physicians Association late last year. Hospitals in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Texas and Utah would come under Steward ownership through the deal.

This year has been one of rapid expansion and growth for Steward, which just four months ago only operated in Massachusetts. Plans to acquire three hospitals each in Ohio and Florida and two in Pennsylvania were announced in February. In September, Steward announced it had received $1.25 billionfrom an Alabama-based real estate investment trust to fund a national expansion plan.