MUSC to buy up Providence Health, other hospitals in SC’s Midlands
Another South Carolina health provider will expand its reach in the region and in Columbia.
The Medical University of South Carolina is aiming to buy Columbia-based Providence Hospital and KershawHealth Medical Center in Camden, a top state lawmaker confirmed to The State.
House budget chief Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, told The State Thursday if the Medical University board approves the acquisition of Providence/Lifepoint hospitals Friday, the Legislature’s State Fiscal and Accountability Authority will vote to approve Tuesday.
A source familiar with plans also confirmed the sale to The State Thursday.
“I was supportive of Prisma acquiring those hospitals in their attempt last year,” Smith said. “Now that they’re not able to do it, I couldn’t think of a better health care system other than MUSC to takeover those hospitals.”
In March 2020, Prisma Health, which already owns several hospitals in the Columbia area as well as the Upstate, announced it would acquire Providence and KershawHealth in Camden from LifePoint Health. The sale would have left Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia as the only Midlands hospital not run by Prisma Health.
“We’ve tasked MUSC over the years to fill voids and health care in rural areas of the state, and we had the possibility of Kershaw County not having a hospital and Fairfield not having an emergency room,” Smith said. “If Lifepoint had closed down, their hospital and MUSC has filled in those potential voids. I think this is a big win for South Carolina and especially for the rural areas of South Carolina.”
Providence was Columbia’s Catholic hospital for 77 years until LifePoint Health of Tennessee purchased the hospital at Forest Drive and Two Notch Road in 2015. The company also operates the Providence Northeast campus on Farrow Road off Interstate 77, as well as a free-standing emergency room in Fairfield County.
Last year, several state lawmakers expressed opposition to the proposed sale to Prisma, raising the specter of layoffs and the narrowing of health care options for Midlands residents. One legislator called Greenville-based Prisma “the greatest generator of unemployment in Columbia.”
“Good neighbors don’t do what Prisma is doing here, coming in and taking over a major institution without even talking to legislators about it,” State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland, said at the time.
Local governments were also leery of the proposal. Columbia City Council put out a joint statement with Fairfield, Kershaw and Lexington county councils asking Prisma Health to “slow down” its bid for Providence.
Last April, Prisma Health announced the planned merger was off, saying the “complex regulatory path” had caused too many delays and “made it prohibitive to move forward,” the company said in a statement.
Reporters Joseph Bustos and Maayan Schechter contributed to this report.
