U of L publicly seeks partner to buy Jewish Hospital and affiliates

By Al Cross Published February 21, 2019 FEATURED, HEALTH BUSINESS

Map from U of L request for proposals for joint venture involving facilities of KentuckyOne Health
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The University of Louisville has gone public with its search for a partner to buy Jewish Hospital and its affiliates, and is now seeking a joint venture that would manage them and the U of L hospital.

“U of L had to make a move, and quickly,’ Grace Schneider writes for the Louisville Courier Journal. “The institution has provided physicians, researchers and medical residents to key lines of service” at Jewish and the Frazier Rehab Institute. “But the future of its programs, crucial to U of L’s standing as a teaching hospital, were in jeopardy after Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives announced in spring 2017 that it would sell unprofitable Jewish and other facilities in Louisville. It’s failed to complete a sale.” CHI “agreed late last year to re-up on an academic affiliation agreement between KentuckyOne and U of L that pays several millions of dollars. But the money won’t keep flowing beyond the first half of this year.”

Jewish and its affiliates are part of KentuckyOne Health, a group that is being disbanded. It has been in talks with BlueMountain Capital Management, an investment group, for more than a year. “KentuckyOne spokesman David McArthur said the organization remains in confidential discussions with both U of L and BlueMountain and is working to reach a sale agreement by June 30,” Schneider reports.

U of L President Neeli Bendapudi said the university is “casting a wide net” to find a partner. “The joint venture’s options could include acquiring Jewish and other KentuckyOne assets outright, although the request also lists leasing as a possibility,” Schneider reports.