Venture capital firm General Catalyst has agreed to acquire Ohio-based nonprofit health system Summa Health, and its insurance plan, and reestablish it as a for-profit organization, the health system’s board of directors announced Wednesday.
General Catalyst announced plans in October to buy a health system and use it as a proving ground for the technology developed by its portfolio companies, especially after finding that health systems are risk averse and slow to adopt new products that could potentially improve care or simplify workflow. The venture firm, which has backed consumer companies like Airbnb and Warby Parker, spun out a separate company — the Health Assurance Transformation Corporation (HATCo) — to operate the health system.
Once the deal undergoes due diligence and is approved by regulators, the two entities will jointly decide which technology to deploy, HATCo CEO Marc Harrison, formerly CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, told STAT late Wednesday. Summa Health CEO Cliff Deveny will continue to lead the for-profit health system.
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