Michigan hospital gets a new owner, and a new name

It took some time, but Coldwater Regional Hospital has a new owner.

Insight Health System has completed the acquisition of Coldwater Regional Hospital in Flint, Michigan. The facility will be known as Insight Hospital and Medical Center Coldwater.

Insight Health System has finalized its acquisition of Coldwater, an 87-bed hospital in Coldwater, Michigan. Insight, based in Flint, Michigan, completed the deal with ProMedica to acquire the hospital earlier this week.

WIth new ownership, the hospital gets a new identity. The facility will now operate as Insight Hospital and Medical Center Coldwater.

Based in Toledo, Ohio, ProMedica had been working to sell the hospital in Coldwater, Michigan for more than a year as the facility has faced financial difficulties. Last year, ProMedica announced that it had reached an agreement to sell Coldwater Regional to American Healthcare Systems, but that deal ultimately didn’t materialize.

But Insight completed the deal to take over the hospital, which has been struggling with financial difficulties.

Dr. Jawad Shah, founder and CEO of Insight Health System, thanked ProMedica’s leadership and pledged to work toward a smooth transition for patients and staff. Shah also expressed enthusiasm about the addition of the hospital to Insight.

“For over 85 years, Coldwater Regional Hospital has provided critical medical and wellness services to the people of Coldwater and surrounding communities, and the Insight team is excited to build upon that legacy with our unique brand of patient care that is second to none,” Shah said in a statement.

The hospital has been dealing with financial difficulties for some time. Late last year, ProMedica closed its labor and delivery unit due to those financial pressures, and more hospitals have made similar decisions in the past few years.

The hospital has about 430 employees and a Level IV trauma designation. With the deal, Insight expands its presence in Michigan. Coldwater is a city of nearly 14,000 in southern Michigan, near the Indiana state line.

Insight recently acquired two Ohio hospitals that were poised to close their doors for good. The health system just finalized the acquisition of Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital last month. Both facilities are based in Warren, Ohio, a city of 39,000 just over an hour from Cleveland.

Both Ohio hospitals had been owned by Steward Health Care, which filed for bankruptcy and planned to close the facilities in September, angering residents in the region. But the deal with Insight has offered Trumbull Regional and Hillside a new lease on life.

Insight has focused on acquiring hospitals in financial distress and working to turn them around. Insight operates six acute care hospitals, six surgery centers, and 28 clinics. The health system now operates hospitals in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, and Insight says another facility in California is slated to come online in 2025.

Hospital merger activity has increased over the past two years, and industry analysts note that many of the deals involve health systems acquiring hospitals in financial distress. Over the past few months, a number of deals have included health systems acquiring hospitals previously owned by Steward.

Earlier this week, Risant Health, a subsidiary of Kaiser Permanente, completed its acquisition of Cone Health, a hospital system in North Carolina. Cone is a financially sound health system in a growing market, and Risant is looking to acquire more community hospitals as it aims to expand value-based care.