UPDATE: FTC Orders Divestitures For Universal Health Merger

(Includes acquisition closing)

 
   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

The Federal Trade Commission ordered Universal Health Systems Inc. (UHS) to sell 15 psychiatric facilities to win approval for its $2 billion acquisition of rival Psychiatric Solutions.

The takeover was closed soon thereafter.

The agency said the deal, as originally proposed, would have combined the two largest providers of acute inpatient psychiatric services in Delaware, Puerto Rico and metropolitan Las Vegas.

Acute inpatient psychiatric services are intensive hospital services provided to patients who pose a danger to themselves or others or are unable to perform basic functions because of an acute psychiatric episode. Psychiatric Solutions's business is managing psychiatric units for other hospitals and government agencies. It specializes in treating children with behavioral or mental illnesses.

The FTC voted 5-0 that Universal Health must sell two inpatient hospitals in Las Vegas, one in Delaware, and one inpatient hospital and 11 affiliated outpatient clinics in Puerto Rico to buyers it approves.

-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357; [e-mail]