CHS Finalizes Sale of Two South Carolina Hospitals

The sales are part of CHS's strategy to consolidate operations and reduce debt. The Tennessee-based hospital chain is expected to sell its last four hospitals in South Carolina in the first quarter of 2019 and exit the state.

Debt-laden Community Health Systems this week announced that it has finalized the sale of its two-hospital Mary Black Health System to Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System in South Carolina.  

Financial terms were not disclosed for the deal, which was announced in October.

The sale includes the 207-bed Mary Black Health System—Spartanburg, and 125-bed Mary Black Health System—Gaffney, and their related physician clinic operations and outpatient service.  

The four-hospital, nonprofit Spartanburg Regional, one of the largest health systems in South Carolina, includes three hospitals and serves an 11-county region.

With the divestiture, CHS now operates four hospitals in South Carolina. However, the Franklin, Tennessee-based for-profit hospital chain announced in November that it was selling those four hospitals to the Medical University Hospital Authority in Charleston, in a deal that is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.

CHS has sold or announced the pending sale of 12 hospitals so far in 2018. The Franklin, Tennessee-based for-profit hospital chain has been struggling since its ill-advised $7.6 billion acquisition of Health Management Associates in 2013.

In 2017, CHS sold 30 hospitals that CHS executives said were low performing. However, a report published by Axios in October challenges that assertion.

CHS remains one of the largest for-profit hospital chains in the nation, and it now owns, operates or affiliates with 111 hospitals in 20 states.