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Short dive:
- After more than two decades together, CommonSpirit Health and AdventHealth are dissolving their joint venture that manages hospital operations in Colorado and western Kansas.
- The management company, Centura, operates one of the largest hospital networks in the region, with 20 hospitals and a network of outpatient clinics.
- In a statement on Tuesday, the systems said the partnership has reached its “natural maturity.” CommonSpirit and AdventHealth have not established a timeline for the transition.
Dive information:
Centura has managed AdventHealth and CommonSpirit operations in Colorado and Kansas since the two nonprofits merged in 1996 to create the joint venture. But now, after 27 years in business, the systems are disbanding the management company, with each organization agreeing to directly manage their respective facilities that currently make up Centura.
Centura will continue to manage the hospitals and clinics during the transition. CommonSpirit and AdventHealth said there will be no disruption to patient care, though it’s unclear whether Centura’s thousands of employees will be able to transition to jobs in either system.
A spokesperson declined to provide further details on the reason for the split; the expected timing; or what will happen to Centura employees affected by the breakup.
Centura’s joint operating agreement gave CommonSpirit, then Catholic Health Initiatives, 70% of Centura’s revenues and hospital operator PorterCare 30% of revenues in the late 1990s. The Florida-based Adventist nonprofit AdventHealth, then called Adventist Health Systems, later acquired PorterCare’s stake in Centura.
The management company’s financial health has deteriorated in recent years. In 2020, Centura operated at a loss of $7.5 million due to increased expenses, according to financial filings with the IRS. That’s compared to a profit of $1.3 million in 2019.
2020 is the most recent year available. But Centura is unlikely to have escaped the lingering COVID-19 headwinds that hammered hospital finances in 2021 and 2022, putting pressure on profits.
Centura is the latest joint venture rejected by CommonSpirit and AdventHealth. In September 2021, CommonSpirit revealed that it had sold part of its stake in an anonymous joint venture. Meanwhile, AdventHealth dissolved its Chicago joint operating company with St. Louis-based nonprofit Ascension in 2021, after nearly seven years.
Chicago-based CommonSpirit was formed from the merger of CHI and Dignity Health in 2019 and is the largest Catholic healthcare system in the U.S.
Following the dissolution of Centura, CommonSpirit will operate 15 hospitals, while AdventHealth will operate five hospitals.
