HCA Healthcare Inc. has acquired a Texas chain of urgent-care centers that have grown the health system giant’s national network of clinics by more than 10 percent.
Terms of Nashville-based HCA’s deal for Texas MedClinic haven’t been disclosed. The transaction covers 40 Texas MedClinic locations in the Houston, San Antonio and Austin markets. They have been allocated to HCA’s health systems or the company’s joint ventures in those cities and been rebranded as CareNow.
“This strategic move reflects our continued commitment to expanding access to care in both new and existing markets, bringing healthcare closer to where people live, work and play,” Tyler Laymon, HCA’s vice president of strategic growth, said in a statement. “By aligning these urgent care clinics to HCA Healthcare, we are making it easier for patients to recognize and access the high-quality care they trust across our network.”
Texas MedClinic was founded in 1982 by Bernard Swift and had been under the umbrella of private equity-backed Community Care Partners since June 2022. At the time, the company operated 20 clinics and saw more than 500,000 patients annually.
HCA’s acquisition grows its national urgent-care footprint to more than 430 clinics. (Nearly 200 of those are in Texas, where 55 of HCA’s 190 hospitals are located.) The purchase follows other deals so far this year in the Carolinas and North Texas that added 30 clinics to HCA’s base as well as regular acquisitions in recent years.
These transactions are part of a long-term goal, CFO Mike Marks told investors late last year, to furnish each HCA hospital with a network of about 20 outpatient facilities such as urgent-care sites, surgery centers and freestanding emergency rooms. Today, that ratio is about 15 per hospital.
“I think we have a good runway,” Marks said at the time. “We have markets that are growing, which allows us to continue to invest and strengthen those networks.”
