A Medical Device Daily

Primedex Health Systems (Los Angeles), a provider of diagnostic imaging services through a network of owned and operated outpatient imaging centers, said it has entered into four imaging center acquisitions in the San Francisco, Fresno, Corona and Irvine, California, markets over the past quarter.

The price for the acquisitions includes about $3.2 million in cash, plus the assumption of about $2.2 million in debt. The total annual revenue from these four centers is expected to be more than $10 million, Primedex said.

The San Francisco acquisition will enhance the company's presence in northern California, a region where Radiologix (Dallas) – which the company agreed to acquire in July (Medical Device Daily, July 10, 2006) — has a significant presence, Primedex said. The center is equipped with MRI, CT and X-ray modalities and will be the company's first multi-modality center in San Francisco.

Primedex said that the Fresno acquisition, acquired from a local hospital, will enhance its position and capabilities in a market where it currently has a facility. The facility has high-field and open MRI, CT, X-ray and ultrasound modalities. The company also intends to add a PET/CT unit to the facility in the near future.

The company said the Corona acquisition is integral to its ability to service a new capitation contract that it signed in the fiscal third quarter and began servicing on Sept.1. Under the new contract, the company will provide imaging services on an exclusive basis to more than 40,000 commercial and senior lives.

The acquisition in Irvine will provide Primedex with its first multi-modality location in that area of Orange County. The facility has MRI, CT, ultrasound and X-ray modalities.

Emdeon (Elmwood Park, New Jersey) reported completing the $565 million cash sale of its Emdeon Practice Services segment to Sage Software (Irvine, California) a subsidiary of UK-based The Sage Group This transaction was first disclosed in August (MDD, Aug. 10, 2006).

Emdeon Business Services will continue as the exclusive provider of electronic healthcare transaction services and patient statement services for Practice Services through 2013. Emdeon Practice Services will continue its relationship with WebMD (also Elmwood Park, New Jersey) and will exclusively integrate WebMD's personal health record with its clinical products, including its electronic medical record.

In other dealmaking news:

• Sunrise Senior Living (McLean, Virginia) reported that it completed its acquisition of Trinity Hospice (Dallas), the eighth largest provider of hospice services in the U.S. The purchase price was about $68 million, plus about $5 million for cash and working capital items and $3 million in transaction costs for a total of around $76 million.

Trinity is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sunrise, which will enable it to focus on operating its hospice business while leveraging the new resources and opportunities available to it through Sunrise. Dino Eliopoulos, formerly Trinity's COO/CFO, has been appointed president of the company. Trinity is expected to generate about $60 million in revenue in 2006.

Sunrise said it expects the transaction to be accretive to EPS in 2007 and has funded this acquisition through its existing cash balances and corporate credit facility.