Penn in final agreement for Lancaster General
The University of Pennsylvania Health System has reached a final agreement to acquire Lancaster General Health, a nearly $1 billion health system anchored by a 533-bed hospital in downtown Lancaster, the two systems announced Tuesday.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System has reached a final agreement to acquire Lancaster General Health, a nearly $1 billion health system anchored by a 533-bed hospital in downtown Lancaster, the two systems announced Tuesday.
Lancaster General's chief executive Thomas E. Beeman said the merger was the result of a planning process that started five years ago.
"The value of integrating with a national health care leader became apparent," especially after forming an alliance with Penn last year, Beeman said.
"We were fortunate to have somebody like Penn so close by," he said.
Penn officials did not have an estimate of when the deal, which must undergo federal and state review, will close.
Lancaster General and Penn have had a longterm working relationship, for decades in cancer and since early 2014 more broadly in the alliance that gave patients of the Lancaster health system an inside track to specialized services at Penn.
The merger talks were disclosed in Octobeer.
The deal does not involve the exchange of money. Instead, Lancaster General's board agreed to make the University of Pennsylvania the ultimate corporate parent of Lancaster General, which had $969.2 million in revenue in the year ended June 30.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System, had $3.9 billion in revenue during that period.
In 2013, Penn acquired Chester County Hospital, in West Chester, but that was a substantially smaller deal. Chester County Hospital had about $300 million in annual revenue in its final fiscal year as an independent.
Penn's health system employed 18,705 employees at the end of 2014. Lancaster General had 7,363 employees in March.
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