Beaumont Health has gained approval from the Michigan attorney general’s office to sell its ambulance division to Superior Air-Group Ambulance Service.
AG Dana Nessel gave the green light to Southfield-based Beaumont to sell Community Emergency Medical Service Inc., Parastar Inc., and Beaumont Mobile Medicine to Warren-based Superior. The deal has been in review with the AG’s office since April.
Beaumont officials said the deal is expected to close in mid-December. About 500 Beaumont employees will move to Superior, which employs 150 and reported $2.24 million in sales, according to Dun & Bradstreet. Superior of Michigan is part of Illinois-based Superior Air-Ground Ambulance Service Inc.
“We are looking forward to continuing to work with Beaumont Health,” said Mary Franco, vice president of Superior Air-Ground Ambulance Service of Michigan Inc., in a statement. “It was also very important for us to transition the staff over to our organization. The staff’s knowledge of Southeast Michigan, combined with their expertise, will allow us to continue serving the community well.”
As one of Michigan’s largest health systems, Beaumont operates eight hospitals, 145 outpatient sites with nearly 38,000 employees.
Earlier this week, Beaumont reported a drop in revenue and profits at the end of the third quarter this year that ended Sept. 30 compared with the same period in 2019.
Beaumont’s net income fell to $61.2 million, a decrease of $197.4 million, or 75 percent, compared with the first nine months of 2019. Operating revenues fell to $3.29 billion, a $200.6 million decrease over the $3.49 billion reported at the end of the third quarter of 2019.
Compared with its corporate goal of exceeding 4 percent operating margin, Beaumont recorded a 2.1 percent operating margin with $67.6 million of operating income. In the same period of 2019, Beaumont earned a 3.8 percent margin and $131.0 million in operating income.
Over the past two years, Beaumont has sold a number of subsidiaries and divisions as it pares down its enterprise to primarily hospitals, ambulatory and urgent care centers and a physician organization.
Beaumont has sold its home medical equipment business and 90 percent of its home health and hospice business to Alternate Solutions and Health Network, a Kettering, Ohio-based company. It also sold its 50 percent financial interest in four nursing homes and an assisted living facilities it had in a joint venture with Premier Health Care Management in Bloomfield Hills to Optalis Healthcare of Novi.
Beaumont also this year has canceled two planned mergers with out-of-state hospital systems.
Earlier this year, Beaumont terminated an estimated $250 million acquisition of Summa Health, a four-hospital system with a health plan based in Akron, Ohio. In early October, Beaumont and Advocate Aurora Health mutually agreed to end their merger plans.