LifePoint Health and Kindred Healthcare have entered into a definitive agreement for LifePoint to acquire Kindred Healthcare. The combination of LifePoint Health and Kindred Healthcare will create a leading diversified healthcare delivery network with expanded services, resources, and expertise to grow and invest in community healthcare while advancing LifePoint’s mission of Making Communities Healthier.

The transaction brings together LifePoint’s national network of community-based hospitals, providers, and access points with Kindred’s expertise in delivering long-term acute care, rehabilitation services and behavioral health services. The go-forward company will be positioned to respond more comprehensively to patients’ needs across the healthcare continuum, guided by LifePoint’s commitment to quality and compliance.

The combination of LifePoint Health and Kindred Healthcare creates a leading community healthcare platform and benefits from:

  • A full array of complementary services supporting patients across the healthcare continuum;
  • Standardized care at the bedside that advances clinical, quality and compliance excellence;
  • Opportunities to develop and expand critical behavioral health services across the country; and
  • Investments in services and technology for patients in new and existing markets.

LifePoint expects that the transaction between two companies offering complementary, distinct services will improve healthcare outcomes and access without increasing costs for patients. The combination of LifePoint and Kindred is supported by a thesis predicated on investment in community healthcare and growth – not on cost-savings resulting from bringing the organizations together.

LifePoint’s healthcare delivery model is based on providing high quality care to the communities it serves. Since its founding in 1999, LifePoint has forged strategic partnerships that bring together the capabilities needed to enhance the delivery of quality care and better serve LifePoint patients and communities. This has included joint ventures with leading academic medical centers, the development of the company’s National Quality Program, service line partnerships, as well as technology advancements and investments to improve the patient and provider experience. This long track record of quality patient care and impressive industry partnerships will continue to be a focus of the combined organization.

Kindred Healthcare is the nation’s leading specialty hospital company with a reputation for delivering compassionate, quality post-acute care that improves patient outcomes. Guided by its mission to provide hope and healing to the most medically complex patients, Kindred has extensive clinical and operational expertise, an innovative approach to patient care and a history of embracing partnerships to improve the health of communities, especially the most vulnerable.

Over the last several years, Kindred has formed joint ventures and partnerships with leading hospitals across the country. This joint venture strategy has enabled Kindred to expand into new geographies, while enhancing access to value-based healthcare services. Together, LifePoint and Kindred will continue advancing this strategy, capitalizing on their combined resources and expertise to partner with respected health systems, payers and other providers to offer services in areas where they do not currently operate.

“Adding Kindred Healthcare to LifePoint is one of the most significant demonstrations, in our company’s history, of LifePoint’s commitment to our deeply rooted mission of Making Communities Healthier. Kindred’s focus on healing and hope, provided through its long-term acute care hospitals, rehabilitation centers and most recently its behavioral health services – an important and growing need across the country – is highly complementary to the current LifePoint network,” said David Dill, president and chief executive officer of LifePoint. “We are honored to welcome Kindred’s talented group of employees and providers into the LifePoint family. We share a commitment to partnerships to benefit patients, and together, we will advance clinical and quality excellence, make healthcare more accessible and support healthier communities.”

“This combination with LifePoint, one of the leading community healthcare companies in the United States, is a validation of Kindred’s success. Over the last several years, we have transformed Kindred into the nation’s leading specialty hospital company, known for improving outcomes and providing compassionate care for the most medically complex patients,” said Benjamin A. Breier, chief executive officer of Kindred. “LifePoint’s investment in Kindred underscores the outstanding reputation our team has built upon a foundation of innovation, and clinical and operational expertise. Kindred and LifePoint have highly complementary capabilities and together we will be poised to further improve patient care across the healthcare continuum. The combination with LifePoint also creates enhanced career development and advancement opportunities for our Kindred teammates who have been the driving force behind our mission of delivering hope and healing to the most medically complex patients. We are excited to move forward and realize the benefits of this combination for our patients and their families, our joint venture partners, and our team members.”

Additionally, LifePoint will invest $1.5 billion over the next three years to improve care for the communities that the combined organization will serve. This commitment includes investments in:

  • The personal and professional growth of its employees – especially nurses and frontline staff;
  • Capital projects to improve healthcare delivery and increase access points; and
  • Technology, digital solutions, and equipment to increase local access to advanced services.

In terms of the path from signing to closing, upon receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021. In advance of completing the transaction, LifePoint anticipates providing additional detail regarding the contemplated transaction, financing, organizational structures, and exciting go-forward opportunities for the teams in Brentwood, Louisville, and at LifePoint and Kindred facilities across the country. The acquisition is not being financed with any funds that have been received as a result of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and related legislation.

Barclays and Guggenheim Securities, LLC are serving as financial advisors to Kindred and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Mintz Levin are serving as legal counsel to Kindred. Financing for the transaction is being provided by Barclays, Citi, and RBC Capital Markets. Citi and RBC Capital Markets are also acting as financial advisors to LifePoint Health. Sidley Austin LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are serving as legal counsel to LifePoint Health.