CHS to sell 5 hospitals to Reading Health System

The selloff of Community Health System (CHS) hospitals is continuing, as the struggling hospital operator agreed to sell five Pennsylvania hospitals to the not-for-profit Reading Health System.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but CHS and Reading Health expect it to close in the summer, with Reading taking over the following hospitals:

• 232-bed Pottstown Memorial Medical Center
• 169-bed Bradywine Hospital in Coatesville
• 151-bed Phoenixville Hospital
• 148-bed Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia
• 63-bed Jennersville Regional Hospital in West Grove

“The proposed acquisition will ensure the continued development of acute care and related assets, and provider network capabilities to best serve our region in a cost-effective manner. Integrating our new health plan into the continuum of services offers this expanded region increased access to value based care and further controls costs for employers and individuals” said Reading Health President and CEO Clint Matthews. “Also, by expanding the scope of our clinical programming through this acquisition, the new system will maximize opportunities to leverage best practices of each organization and further coordinate our system-wide brand of high-quality care across the entire system.”

To reflect the expanding system, Reading Health said it will be rebranded under a new system, Tower Health, with more details promised in the summer.

For CHS, the deal is another piece in its planned divestiture of 30 hospitals it agreed to sell to reduce $15 billion in debt and posting $1.7 billion loss in 2016. It had previously sold four others Pennsylvania hospitals to Harrisburg-based PinnacleHealth.