Ochsner Health to take over 7-hospital Mississippi-based provider in major Gulf Coast expansion

Ochsner Health, Louisiana’s largest health care provider, will take over the seven-hospital Rush Health System in Mississippi and Alabama, expanding Ochsner’s reach across the Gulf Coast, the hospital systems announced Thursday.

Rush and Ochsner signed a “shared mission agreement” that builds upon an existing partnership started in 2019, the hospital groups said. Ochsner is Louisiana’s largest hospital system as well as the state’s largest non-governmental employer with 25,0000 employees, and the non-profit has grown rapidly in recent years.

In October, it acquired Lafayette General Health, a 461-bed system, that allowed for expansion into the western part ofthe state with a promise of $465 million put toward new facilities and upgrades over the next ten years.

The deal with Rush represents a major geographic expansion,giving the Louisiana-based healthcare provider a large footprint in eastern Mississippi and moving it into Alabama for the first time. In doing so, it will have access to a greater pool of patients that could potentially travel throughout its system to receive specialty care and treatments.

Ochsner CEO Warner Thomas called the takeover a “natural progression” of the existing partnership between the hospital groups.”We are excited to work with them to expand services while improving the health and wellness of people in the communities Rush serves,” Thomas said in a prepared statement.

Rush Health Systems will become Ochsner Rush Health once the takeover is complete in 2022. Minimum-wage employees can expect an increase to $12 per hour. Patients can continue to use existing insurance, and medical staff will continue to be comprised of both employed and contract physicians.

Rush Health Systems, a 106-year-old institution, has seven hospitals and more than 30 clinics across East Mississippi and West Alabama, with 250 employed and contracted physicians and 95 advanced practice providers. In 2019, tax forms for the non-profit show it had $18.7 million in net assets.

Ochsner had total revenue of $3.8 billion in 2019, according to an audit. The system had a net income of $221.8 million.

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This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 12:00 PM.