The number of healthcare merger-and-acquisition deals in the second quarter rose 11 percent over the first quarter and 15 percent the year-ago period, according to HealthCareMandA.com, published by Irving Levin Associates Inc. of Norwalk.
Combined spending on the 396 deals in the second quarter reached $88.2 billion, up 9 percent from the previous quarter, the report said.
A few factors influenced deal volume in the second quarter, Lisa E. Phillips, editor of HealthCareMandA.com, said in a news release announcing the data.
“The passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Replacement Act of 2015 (MACRA) ensured that the changes in the healthcare marketplace begun by the Affordable Care Act are going to continue,” she said. “It’s very clear that those who practice value-based care will get the carrots, while providers who stick with fee-for-service will get the sticks.”
In the first half of 2016, deal volume reached 754 transactions, up 5 percent compared with the first half of 2015. Spending in the first half of 2016 reached $168.9 billion, a 4 percent increase compared with the same period in 2015.
Deals in healthcare services – including behavioral health care; home health and hospice; hospitals; laboratories, MRI and dialysis; long-term care; managed care; physician medical groups; rehabilitation; and other – accounted for 60 percent of the second quarter’s transaction total, slightly lower than the 62 percent share reported in the previous quarter, but equal to the second quarter of 2015, the report said.
Investor interest in the services sectors was generally strong. There were 17 transactions in the behavioral healthcare sector in the second quarter, up 113 percent from the first quarter and 183 percent from second quarter 2015.
The long-term care sector posted 87 transactions in the second quarter, up 5 percent from the first quarter and 13 percent from the year-ago quarter.
