The majority owner of Liberty Dialysis Hawaii LLC is being acquired by Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. as part of a $1.7 billion acquisition of 260 clinics across the nation.
The sale of Liberty Dialysis Holdings Inc., which operates 16 Hawaii clinics and has 300 local employees, is subject to approval by the Federal Trade Commission and Hawaii State Health Planning & Development Agency and is expected to close in early 2012.
Liberty Dialysis Hawaii Clinics
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Kona, 78-6831 Ali‘i Drive
>> Liberty Dialysis-North Hawaii, 67-1123 Mamalahoa Highway
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Hilo, 140 Rainbow Drive
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Liliha, 2226 Liliha St.
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Kahana, 10 Hoohui Road
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Kailua, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Kauai, 3224 Elua St.
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Leeward, 91-2137 Fort Weaver Road
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Maui, 105 Maui Lani Parkway
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Maui Home, 105 Maui Lani Parkway
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Molokai, 28 Kamoi St.
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Sullivan, 2230 Liliha St.
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Waianae, 86-080 Farrington Highway.
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-West Kauai, 4643A Waimea Canyon Road
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Kaimuki, 3625 Harding Ave.
>> Liberty Dialysis Hawaii-Waipahu, 94-450 Mokola St.
Fresenius Medical Care Facilities
>> Fresenius Medical Care-Honolulu Dialysis, 226 N. Kuakini St.
>> Fresenius Medical Care-Aloha Dialysis, 1520 Liliha St.
>> Fresenius Medical Care-Kapahulu Dialysis, 750 Palani Ave.
>> Fresenius Medical Care-Windward Dialysis, 45-480 Kaneohe Bay Drive
>> Fresenius Medical Care-Pearlridge, 98-1005 Moanalua Road
>> Fresenius Medical Care-Ko‘olau, 47-388 Hui Iwa St.
>> Fresenius Medical Care-Kapolei, 555 Farrington Highway
>> Fresenius Medical Care-Wahiawa, 850 Kilani Ave.
Source: Fresenius Medical Care
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Washington-based Liberty Dialysis, which took over the dialysis business of St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii in 2006, has annual sales of about $1 billion and about 5,000 employees nationwide.
"There will be no impact on the number of clinics or services available in the Hawaii market" and the Liberty brand will likely remain, said Ryan Pardo, vice president and general counsel for Liberty Dialysis, though Fresenius said in an earnings report released this week that it anticipates some facilities may need to be divested to get regulatory clearance for the transaction. Fresenius is a German company.
Lower Medicare reimbursements and greater economies of scale in purchasing drugs, supplies and equipment, prompted the sale, according to both parties.
"It better positions both companies for success in a changing health care environment," Pardo said.
After the acquisition, Fresenius, the largest dialysis provider in the U.S., will serve more than 158,000 patients across the United States, including 2,900 patients in Hawaii. It will operate 2,086 clinics nationwide and 24 in Hawaii, up from eight clinics locally.
The Liberty Dialysis acquisition is part of Fresenius’ "strategy of expanding our service network to achieve excellent patient care in a more cost-effective integrated model," Ben Lipps, Fresenius CEO, said in the earnings release.
After the sale, St. Francis and more than a dozen local nephrologists will continue as shareholders of Liberty Dialysis’ Hawaii operations.
There are 2,900 Hawaii residents currently on dialysis and more than 156,000 Hawaii residents with chronic kidney disease, which could lead to dialysis or kidney transplants, according to the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii. The state has a higher than average rate of chronic kidney disease, with one in seven people affected locally compared with one in nine nationally.
