HealthTrust Inc. has closed on the purchase of Holy Cross Health Services of Utah from the Holy Cross Health System Corp., Health-Trust Inc. announced Monday.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. However, the transaction did not include either the Holy Cross Hospital Foundation or the St. Benedict's Foundation.Under terms of a Federal Trade Commission consent order, Health-Trust will sell Holy Cross Hospital and related clinics along the Wasatch Front within six months. In the interim, under a "hold-separate" agreement, Health-Trust will manage Holy Cross Hospital as an independent acute-care hospital.
The sale under the previous agreement settles earlier FTC charges that HealthTrust's acquisition of the company's three hospitals, including Holy Cross, Holy Cross Jordan Valley and St. Benedict's in Ogden, would significantly lessen competition for inpatient acute care on Utah's populous Wasatch Front.
The FTC had gone so far as to file a complaint in U.S. District Court in March to block the acquisition until antitrust concerns were resolved.
The agency alleged that the Holy Cross acquisition would increase the likelihood that hospitals in Weber, Davis and Salt Lake counties would raise rates or decrease the quality of their services in violation of federal antitrust laws.
HealthTrust, based in Nashville, Tenn., has been negotiating since October to acquire the three hospitals and several related clinics From Holy Cross Health Services of Utah, a subsidiary of the Indiana-based Holy Cross Health System Corp.
HealthTrust already operates six smaller hospitals elsewhere in Utah.
Holy Cross Health Care System Corp., which operates health services corporations in six states, including Utah, is sponsored by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in South Bend, Ind.