Healthcare merger and acquisition activity decreased 14 percent in the third quarter compared to a year earlier and the value of the deals also fell, according to data from Norwalk-based HealthCareMandA.com.
“The on-again, off-again process in the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act definitely had an effect on healthcare transactions by the third quarter,” said Lisa E. Phillips, editor of HealthCareMandA.com. “We’re not seeing more mega-deals until the Trump administration gets its promised tax reform legislation through Congress.”
HealthCareMandA.com groups deals in two categories, services and technology. Services include behavioral health care; home health and hospice; hospitals; laboratories, MRI and dialysis; long-term care; managed care; physician medical groups; rehabilitation; and other. Technology includes biotechnology; eHealth; medical devices; and pharmaceuticals.
On the services side, long-term care remained the most active of all sectors, with 71 deals, equal to third quarter 2016, but 7 percent fewer than the 76 deals in the second quarter. Hospitals, physician medical groups and other services all showed softer deal volume compared with the second quarter, and third quarter 2016.
Technology sectors all fell from the second quarter, except for pharmaceuticals, with deals flat with the second quarter, but down 59 percent from a year ago. Only the eHealth sector posted a gain against the year-ago quarter. That sector benefited from the need for healthcare providers and payers to install or upgrade systems such as revenue cycle management, data analysis and electronic medical records, HealthCareMandA.com said.
