Steward Health Care to Sell Physicians Network to Private Equity Firm

The sale to Rural Healthcare Group involves 5,000 doctors across multiple states and awaits regulatory approval and bankruptcy court review.

Steward Health Care has filed for bankruptcy and plans to sell its physicians network to Rural Healthcare Group, an affiliate of Kinderhook Industries.
The network includes about 5,000 doctors in Massachusetts and nine other states, serving around 400,000 patients.
The transaction follows a failed attempt to sell the network to Optum, a unit of UnitedHealth.
The sale must be approved by a bankruptcy judge and regulatory bodies in several states, including Massachusetts.
Massachusetts officials and healthcare experts express concerns about the impact of for-profit ownership on patient care and physician-hospital relationships.