M&A
Leveraging smart strategic partnerships is critical to establishing a thriving future for any leading healthcare provider. In these moments, the political power and trust of your own people and your community will either work for or against you.
Having led communications and political strategy for more than $45 billion in announced healthcare M&A and partnership transactions, you can count on our expertise to steer through the most complicated collaborations and to ensure a successful outcome.
Organizations that align quickly are better able to achieve the operational, clinical and financial goals that ignited the partnership in the first place. Our unique combination of deep provider knowledge, sharp political thinking and experience implementing proven best practices leads to successful transactions that:
- Advance your mission
- Protect your reputation
- Prepare for integration
- Close on time
Our Latest Thinking on M&A:
Use Your Merger (Or Acquisition) to Talk About More than Just the Deal
We’ve all heard it: Healthcare M&A continues at a feverish pace. Last year marked the highest number...
Insight into industry trends, healthcare venture capital news and communications best practices. Written from the perspective of our advisers, who work with healthcare leaders making high-stakes decisions every day.
M&A Case Studies
THE CHALLENGE
The leaders of a small regional health system made a strategic decision that they needed a partner if they were to deal successfully with increasing capital needs, reimbursement cuts and changing patient volumes.
They identified an out-of-town investor-owned health care group that offered the needed combination of clinical, quality and operational resources. It had the ability to acquire and improve their smaller system, which was essential to positioning it for population health management in this new era of healthcare.
While the system’s leadership was confident about the partner and the transaction itself, they had anxiety about its reception among internal and external stakeholders. In an economically challenged community, the system was a leading employer and economic engine for the region. The partnership represented the biggest transaction in the community in a generation, and the conversion from not-for-profit to for-profit status required jumping several regulatory hurdles.
While the carefully constructed partnership was designed to preserve opportunities for employees, physicians and the community, these groups could potentially thwart a successful announcement and completion of the transaction. In addition, what could be expected from the labor union, independent physicians and the neighboring hospital that opposed the deal? And how could others be convinced to see the partnership as a positive change?
THE SOLUTION
Realizing that this situation required a smart political and communications campaign, we focused on specific goals:
- Rally the troops — employees, physicians and patients — around the system’s vision for the future and build excitement about the new partner;
- Neutralize the opposition by building an army of supporting voices and making it politically safe to support the partnership; and
- Complete the transaction without regulatory hiccups and create a significant new foundation as a result of the partnership.
Any smart political campaign needs a campaign team. In this case, the team included leadership from the system and the partner, board representatives, communications experts, attorneys and the broker. With clearly defined roles, we worked with the team to develop and execute a detailed plan that included:
- A three-phased campaign. The first phase involved talking with key stakeholders at the system and developing targeted messages and a communications strategy for unveiling the new partner. The second phase centered on announcing the letter of intent, which took place in one day with a carefully planned timeline of events and preceded the following weeks of extensive engagement inside and outside the organization. The final phase focused on clearing regulatory hurdles, helping the system’s internal and external audiences get to know their new partner and preparing the organization for a smooth integration.
- A joint approach to communicating about the partnership and answering questions from various audiences. Employees, physicians, the media and the local community were likely to scrutinize the new partnership. The system and the partner made it a priority to present a united front in all engagement with the presence of leadership from both organizations.
- A “pressure valve” component that allowed constructive ways for audiences to express concerns and ask questions. Ongoing, deliberate engagement at every level of the organization and the community was imperative to gain advocates—and to allow people to air concerns. In addition to town halls, rounding, one-on-one meetings, calls and memos, a campaign website and newsletter were created to allow for two-way communication with all stakeholders. The partner brought in a team from human resources to meet with employees to explain changes to their benefits. Without these opportunities, the opposition would have been more likely to go to the media to air their grievances.
THE RESULTS
On the day of the initial announcement, a cascade of carefully orchestrated communications generated relief and excitement. A celebratory mood swept through the system because of its transparency and commitment to keeping jobs. The welcome investment in the hospital was seen as a source of opportunities for employees and the community.
Thanks to a strategic series of meetings, the labor union never challenged the partnership. Media coverage was positive, balanced and fair. The partnership cleared the regulatory requirements, including two successful public hearings. Concerned independent physicians eventually got on board. The transaction closed successfully, and the resulting creation of a new foundation was seen as a stunning development to benefit the local community.
The system’s leadership called the partnership an investment of “big-town medicine in small-town America,” and a strategic campaign approach sent that message reverberating throughout media coverage and other communications. The result was peace of mind about what was to come.
THE CHALLENGE
An investor-owned hospital company was the lead contender to buy a religiously affiliated, not-for-profit healthcare system steeped in an 80-plus-year history with hospitals across five counties.
This purchase would mark the company’s largest, most diverse acquisition to date. It represented both a great opportunity and a sweeping communications challenge.
For starters, the company didn’t have a track record with multi-hospital health systems. Instead, they were known for their work with standalone community hospitals. They needed to convince the local board of community leaders of their ability to handle something of this size and complexity, all in a competitive market. What’s more, they needed to prove they would honor the hospital’s faith heritage and the traditional culture of the community.
But that was just the beginning. In a town with few for-profit hospital success stories, gaining the trust of employees, physicians and the community was a tall order. Leaders recognized, however, that it was an essential requirement for success.
THE SOLUTION
With only three months to field a campaign and five counties to cover, a comprehensive plan was in order. We worked with the system to develop and implement a strategic communications and outreach program unique to the situation’s needs.
The plan called for:
- A message platform to introduce the company, while respecting the local hospital’s mission, culture and heritage.
- A tailor-made website for sharing vital information and updates. Given geographic challenges, this website emerged as the preferred communications vehicle. It proved the best source of information, provided a venue for questions and answers and allowed breaking developments to be shared in a timely way.
- A one-on-one outreach campaign – because personal interaction is immensely powerful in this age of electronic communications. People trust people, not websites and emails. It’s easy to demonize unseen out-of-towners; harder to stereotype someone who has shaken your hand. At every key milestone of the acquisition, top leadership of the acquiring company led simultaneous events at each hospital. Regardless of location, each hospital felt equally important and received information at the same time.
- A deliberate employee integration program, including in-person and online workshops, conducted well before the purchase was completed.
- A steady drumbeat of communications, such as employee and physician-specific meetings and events, rounding on the floors, face-to-face meetings, regular updates through email and newsletters and the creation of strong news media relationships.
THE RESULTS
This acquisition was completed on time with no regulatory, legal, financial or cultural “red flags.”
Through a foundation of thoughtful and strategic communications during the transition, the company was widely perceived as a true partner who appreciated the hospital’s historical role in their community and who could be trusted to move it forward.
Less than three years later, the system is prospering and plans for expanded and new healthcare are under way. The system continues to be viewed as an essential provider of care.
