We know that seniors housing and care dealmakers pushed M&A activity to its second-highest total ever in 2023, with around 490 transactions, and counting. But what about the whole healthcare industry, which our sister publication LevinPro HC tracks? For the year, the 12 other healthcare sectors we cover, from Behavioral Health and Home Health to Hospitals and Physician Medical Groups, a total of 2,154 transactions were publicly announced, a 12% decline from the 2,443 transactions disclosed in 2022, which was a record-high. It also fell 4% short of 2021’s total, but historically, anything above 2,000 is on another level. After all, 2019 only reached around 1,400 deals.
All sectors reported year-over-year declines in M&A activity, with the exception of Biopharma and Hospitals, the latter prompted by an increased number of mergers between health systems. The Physician Medical Group sector had one of the largest drops in activity, down 100 deals from the volume seen in 2022, but it remains one of the busiest areas of interest from investors. Private equity remains highly active across health care, too, accounting for 32% of all deals. Yet skilled nursing and private equity, with its paltry 5% ownership interest in the sector, grabs most of the media’s attention. Hmm.
