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Jim Skogsbergh, left, president and CEO of Advocate Aurora Health, and Eugene A. Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health
Photo: Courtesy Advocate Aurora Health
Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health have completed their merger after a delay in approval from The Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board.
There is no cost to the transaction, according to the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board, which met on November 14 and approved an exemption to allow the merger.
On Friday, December 2, Advocate and Atrium Health announced they had closed on their formal combination to create Advocate Health, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The combined organization aims to bring medical innovations to patients more quickly, address the root causes of health inequities, advance population health, enable career advancement and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, Advocate Health said.
Eugene A. Woods is chief executive officer of Advocate Health. Jim Skogsbergh, will serve alongside Woods as chief executive officer until his retirement in 18 months.
The board of directors comprises an equal number of members from Advocate Aurora and Atrium Health.
Advocate Health will maintain a strong presence in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas, including a planned, new, Milwaukee-based institute for health equity, Skogsbergh said. The Wake Forest University School of Medicine will serve as the academic core of the combined entity.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The merger creates a large health system of 67 hospitals in Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. Advocate Health will have more than 1,000 sites of care with combined revenues of more than $27 billion.
The union combines the 27-hospital Advocate Aurora Health, based in Downers Grove, Ill., with the 40-hospital Atrium, based in Charlotte, N.C.
The Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora brands will continue to be used in their respective local markets.
THE LARGER TREND
Advocate Aurora and Atrium announced the merger in May.
It required the approval of the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board. While Advocate Aurora owns nine hospitals and one ambulatory surgery center requiring state board approval, Atrium Health has no health facilities in Illinois, the state board said.
The Certificate of Need process required is designed to restrain rising health care costs by preventing unnecessary construction or modification of health care facilities, the Illinois board said. Also, the deal must be consistent with the public interest.
The state board had received three opposition letters to the merger, including from the SEIU Healthcare Union.
At the September 17 Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board meeting, members postponed approval to allow the applicants to address concerns over operational details and the controlling interests of the new entity.
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