Beaumont Health announced Wednesday that it is considering a merger with a large out-of-state hospital system.
Beaumont said it has signed a nonbinding letter of intent with Advocate Aurora Health, a 28-hospital system in Illinois and Wisconsin.
More details of the potential deal between the two nonprofit systems are expected later today.
Beaumont is the largest hospital system in Michigan with eight hospitals.
In May, Beaumont canceled plans to acquire the Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health system. Executives with Summa told local media that Beaumont officials did not provide reasons why they were scuttling the deal.
A news release Wednesday said the possible Beaumont-Advocate Aurora deal would "allow both not-for-profit health providers to strengthen and align their purposes of serving the needs of individuals, families and communities throughout the Upper Midwest."
The release said discussions between Beaumont and Advocate Aurora began at the end of 2019 and paused amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The hospital systems have agreed to an equal one-third governance representation for any future partnership between Beaumont, legacy Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care organizations, which merged in 2018 to create Advocate Aurora Health.
Advocate Aurora has dual headquarters in Milwaukee and suburban Chicago and more than 70,000 employees. Its annual revenue figures were not immediately available.
Beaumont Health has annual revenue of about $4.7 billion and 38,000 employees.
“We are excited to explore this option with an organization as highly regarded as Advocate Aurora Health known for their track record in health outcomes, population health and consumer experience,” Beaumont CEO John Fox said in a statement. “The potential opportunity to leverage the strength and scale of a regional organization while maintaining a local focus and strong presence in Michigan as a leader and major employer is important to us.”
Check back to Freep.com for more details on this developing story.
Michigan Radio, Bridge Magazine, and The Detroit Free Press are teaming up to report on Michigan hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. We will be sharing accounts of the challenges doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel face as they work to treat patients and save lives. If you work in a Michigan hospital, we would love to hear from you. You can contact reporters Robin Erb rerb@bridgemi.com at Bridge, Kristen Jordan Shamus kshamus@freepress.com at the Free Press and Kate Wells katwells@umich.edu at Michigan Radio.
