Ascension to Sell 7 Wisconsin Hospitals, Clinics to Aspirus Health

Wausau, Wisconsin-based Aspirus is a community directed health system that operates four hospitals in Michigan, six hospitals in Wisconsin, and more than 50 clinics.

Ascension will sell its seven hospitals, 21 physician clinics, and air and ground medical transport services in north and central Wisconsin to Aspirus Health, the two nonprofit health systems announced jointly on Tuesday.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Aspirus is committed to creating thriving, healthy rural communities," Matthew Heywood, president and CEO of Aspirus Health, said in a media release.

Wausau, Wisconsin-based Aspirus is a community directed health system that operates four hospitals in Michigan, six hospitals in Wisconsin, more than 50 clinics, and ancillary services.

"We are looking forward to welcoming these new team members into the Aspirus family and to expanding access to local primary care and specialty services to create a more seamless health care experience for thousands of rural Wisconsin residents," Heywood said.

The seven hospitals to be sold by Ascension had a combined $336 million in net patient revenues in 2019, with St. Michael's accounting for $130 million of that total.

Ascension operates 24 hospitals in Wisconsin, with more than 100 care venues.

Allan Baumgarten, a veteran observer of the hospital sector in several states, tells HealthLeaders that Ascension looks to be "reducing its footprint in rural parts of Wisconsin while making investments in expanded and new facilities in southeast Wisconsin."

"Ascension was a close second to Aurora for largest hospital system in Wisconsin until 2016," Baumgarten says. "Since then it has been dealing away a lot of its small, rural Wisconsin facilities, most of which were part of the old Ministry Health network."

"In the last 2-3 years, they sold hospitals in Park Falls and Weston to Marshfield Clinic (after selling St. Joseph hospital in Marshfield to Marshfield Clinic a few years earlier.) It also sold St. Elizabeth in Wabasha, MN (the only Ascension hospital in MN) to Gundersen Health," Baumgarten says.

At the same time, Baumgarten says, Ascension has eight projects underway in southeast Wisconsin, "including three micro-hospitals, some joint venture urgent care, some renovations of hospitals in Milwaukee, mostly around labor and delivery."

Aspirus has also been making acquisitions (Divine Savior in Portage) and in 2020 opened an 8-bed inpatient unit next to its clinic in Stevens Point, where it is now acquiring the Ascension hospital, he says.

The sale will include:

• Eagle River Hospital in Eagle River
   
• Good Samaritan Hospital in Merrill
   
• Howard Young Medical Center in Woodruff
   
• Our Lady of Victory Hospital in Stanley
   
• Sacred Heart Hospital in Tomahawk
   
• St. Mary’s Hospital in Rhinelander
   
• St. Michael’s Hospital in Stevens Point
   
• Ascension Wisconsin Spirit Medical Transport, and 21 physician clinics.

"Ascension Wisconsin remains committed to putting our communities first, which means being responsive to the changing needs of those we serve," said Bernie Sherry, senior vice president of Ascension and ministry market executive for Ascension Wisconsin.

"We look forward to finalizing this transition with Aspirus as a way of honoring that commitment," Sherry said. "We are confident that this transition will enable these facilities and their dedicated caregivers to be in a better position to serve the communities' health needs going forward."