June 19. After a year of trying—and a favorable federal court ruling earlier this month—Novant got a big “no” for their plan to acquire the Lake Norman and Davis Regional Medical Centers from subsidiaries of Community Health Systems.

“Despite our vision to restore services the area has lost and deliver high quality, remarkable care, we have been met with opposition from the Federal Trade Commission at every step. We are steadfast in our belief that these facilities and their patients would have greatly benefited from joining Novant Health, but with the FTC’s continued roadblocks we do not see a way to finalize this transaction. The communities served by these facilities deserve better than the fate they’ve been dealt by the FTC so we will look for other ways to support patients and clinicians in these communities,” Winston-Salem-based Novant said in a statement yesterday.

Background

Novant Health abandoned the $320 million deal to buy Davis Regional, in Statesville, and Lake Norman Regional, in southern Iredell County, after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the FTC’s request for an emergency injunction blocking the sale.

The Lake Norman area is one of the fastest-growing communities in the Charlotte region and poised for ongoing expansion in the years to come.

Novant Health said it was well-positioned for growth alongside it and “has an established legacy of doing so in similar communities of concentrated growth like Matthews and Ballantyne,” including Huntersville where Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center is located.

Atrium hospital coming to Cornelius

In Cornelius

Separately, and perhaps the inspiration for the drawn-out fight, Atrium is building a $254 million hospital in Cornelius that will be completed next year.

Harmful to competition?

But the FTC said the Novant acquisitions would hurt consumers by eliminating competitors, resulting in a “combined entity with an eye-popping 64 percent share of the market in the Eastern Lake Norman Area.”

Novant Health has more than 40,000 team members and 850 locations, including 19 hospitals.