Wave of Nonprofit Hospital Sales Seen in Massachusetts

A wave of sales of community medical centers is likely to remake the hospital industry in Massachusetts, with for-profit companies emerging as the probable buyers, according to The Boston Globe.

Steward Health Care System, the company established last year to run the Caritas Christi hospital chain after its purchase by a private equity firm, is the leading contender to purchase nonprofit hospitals in Taunton and Lowell, Mass., people familiar with the negotiations tell The Globe.

That sale is expected to touch off similar deals, with nonprofit bidders, who pledge to maintain the hospitals’ community roots, competing with commercial firms better able to invest in clinical and technological improvements.