The sale of Stewardship Health Physicians Group — once the last part of the Massachusetts holding company Steward Health Care — was completed Thursday, ending the company’s 14-year run in the state.
New York-based Kinderhook Industries Inc. its purchase of Stewardship for $245 million. The physician network includes nearly 5,000 practicing and affiliated physicians in 10 states, nearly half of them in Massachusetts.
As part of the acquisition, Kinderhook said it will change the name of the Nashville-based physician organization from Rural Healthcare Group, which previously operated only in Tennessee and North Carolina, to Revere Medical. Revere Medical has gone live with a new corporate website.
The rebranding reflects Kinderhook Physicians Group’s expansion into Massachusetts, a larger and more urban market. Kinderhook and Stewardship executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Some Massachusetts elected officials and the state’s congressional delegation have objected to the growing role of private equity in health care, citing the enrichment of Steward’s executives when the national hospital chain went bankrupt. But because Congress and state legislatures have rejected proposals to limit the role of private equity, state regulators have found no tools to block the sale.
In a statement on its website, Revere Medical said it is committed to “serving its providers, colleagues and most importantly its patients” and “building the most respected (healthcare) organization in the country.”
The new company said it plans to upgrade the legacy Stewardship’s infrastructure and technology to improve the quality of care at its clinics.
“Revere Medical is committed to ensuring that care remains local so that patients can still have access to their existing providers, specialists and hospitals,” the statement said. That assumes Massachusetts doctors will continue to treat patients at Steward’s former hospitals in the state, which are now owned by nonprofit operators.
In a statement, Revere Medical CEO Benson Sloan said the next step will be to integrate Steward’s physicians with 14 medical groups operating in Tennessee and North Carolina.
According to Chairman Joseph Weinstein, the acquisition of Revere Medical “provides a trusted partner focused on quality care and improving the clinic experience.” The group’s statement did not say whether Weinstein, a longtime Steward executive, would remain with the organization under new ownership.
As its financial crisis deepened earlier this year, Steward said on March 26 that he had Signed a letter of intent to sell Stewardship to UnitedHealth’s Optum division for an unknown price. But this proposed transaction later collapsed Steward filed for bankruptcy On May 6.
Steward sold its six Massachusetts hospitals on Oct. 1. Boston Medical Center paid $140 million to St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Brighton and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton; Lawrence General Hospital paid $28 million to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill; and, Providence Lifespan Health System paid $175 million for St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton.
Two other Steward hospitals, Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, were closed. after the hospital system said in late August that it had not found qualified buyers.
Robert Weisman can be reached at [email protected].