Banner inks $120M deal on therapy centers

Agreement affects hundreds of workers at 42 places

units located inside four Banner Health hospitals: Banner University-Phoenix, Banner Boswell, Banner Del E. Webb and Banner Baywood.

Those in-hospital units will be replaced over the next two years by three new rehabilitation hospitals that will be built near Banner University in central Phoenix, Banner Boswell in Sun City and Banner Gateway in Gilbert.

Banner pursued the deal with Select Medical as part of its effort to expand medical services outside traditional hospital settings, said Lynn Rosenbach, Banner’s vice president of post-acute services.

Patients will notice the newly named outpatient rehabilitation centers later this year, Rosenbach said.

The joint venture will recruit new board-certified doctors and other medical providers to fill current openings and keep pace with anticipated growth, Rosenbach said.

In 2016, Banner acquired the Urgent Care Extra chain and opened dozens of new locations under the Banner Urgent Care name.

Select Medical is a publicly traded company that has reached similar joint ventures with health-care providers such as the Cleveland Clinic and SSM Health of St. Louis, Missouri. who will work for the joint venture, Banner Health officials said. A Select Medical spokeswoman said talks are ongoing with qualified employees who will join the new entity, but the company representative declined to say how many positions would be filled.

The collaboration will combine 26 Select physical-therapy centers and 12 Banner Health physical-therapy centers. The outpatient centers will be renamed Banner Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in partnership with Select Medical, officials said.

The deal also will include physical-therapy

Arizona’s largest health-care provider has struck a deal with a Pennsylvania company to combine operations of 38 physical-therapy clinics and four hospitals in Arizona.

Banner Health will be the majority owner of a joint venture that will be managed by Select Medical Holdings Corp. of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

The $120 million deal will affect 500 Banner Health physical-therapy employees