PA. PROVIDER BUYS HOUSTON HEALTH SYSTEM FOR $49M
Select Medical Corp of Pennsylvania, a leading provider of specialty healthcare, has purchased Nexus Health Systems of Houston, a provider of medical services in residential and specialty fields, for $49 million. Select Medical currently operates 90 long-term acute-care hospitals and will acquire HealthBridge Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital of California, an acute care facility, from their deal with Nexus. According to Select Medical the deal is anticipated to close in the second quarter of 2007.
HEALTH CENTER JOINS VALUE-DRIVEN HEALTHCARE INITIATIVE
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced that Arizona State University’s Center for Health Information and Research (CHIR) is the newest member of the Better Quality Information (BQI) to Improve Care for Medicare Beneficiaries project, a collaborative effort to further the Value-Driven Healthcare Initiative. CHIR will combine their claims data or clinical information with Medicare to offer consistent measures of the quality of provider services. Currently, the BQI project is being implemented in four regional collaboratives around the country.
PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS UNITE ON SUPERVISION REGULATIONS
Members of the Missouri Academy of Physician Assistants (MAPA) have united to urge lawmakers to pass a supervision bill, which protects the establishment of responsible guidelines for the supervision of physician assistants and bars the state Board of Healing Arts’ new guidelines, which would require 100 percent on-site supervision. The bill, SB 537, was introduced by Sen. Brad Lager and would allow physician assistants to care for patients as long as their supervising doctor is on site 66 percent of the time. A bill that is currently pending in the House, SB 308, which has identical language to SB 537, is also being supported by MAPA.
INVESTMENT FIRM FINANCES SENIOR HOUSINF PROPERTIES
GE Healthcare FInancial Services has planned a 10-year, $160 million mortgage for Maryland-based Wakefield Capital, an investor in senior housing properties. Wakefield Capital, a joint venture of Chain Bridge Capital and NorthStar Realty, will use the financing to acquire 28 independent and assisted living properties in seven states, adding to the firm’s 80 senior housing properties nationwide.