A Medical Device Daily

The Archdiocese of Boston reportedly is in talks with Catholic Health Initiatives (Denver), a hospital chain, to have it take over the church’s ailing Caritas Christi Health Care system.

Discussions with Catholic Health Initiatives have been ongoing for several weeks, according to sources talking to newspapers in Boston, although no formal agreement has been reached. They come just two months after the abrupt collapse of a deal that would have transferred Caritas Christi’s six hospitals to Ascension Health (St. Louis).

The archdiocese had considered an affiliation with Catholic Health Initiatives last year before it reached a tentative agreement with Ascension. As with the Ascension discussions, the church hopes to hand over Caritas Christi — the state’s second-largest hospital chain — to a new owner that would honor its mission of Catholic healthcare and invest in making substantial improvements.

“We remain open to exploring an appropriate and mutually agreeable affiliation that provides an opportunity to enhance the quality and accessibility of Catholic healthcare,” the archdiocese said in a statement. It did not confirm the renewed discussions with Catholic Health Initiatives.

Representatives at Catholic Health Initiatives would neither confirm nor deny that the discussions are taking place.

In other agreement news:

HealthCare Partners (HCP; Torrance, California), owner of California’s largest private physician practice and large practices in Central Florida, Utah and Nevada, reported that it has renewed its group purchasing relationship with the Premier alliance (Charlotte, North Carolina).

“With centralized purchasing and significant supply spend that’s comparable to many hospitals, HCP functions like an IDN,” said Joan Ralph, VP of Continuum of Care Services for Premier. “We look forward to becoming even more actively engaged with HCP to help them take advantage of their size and successfully leverage all of their contracts.