Private equity-backed Solis Mammography has inked what it calls a “groundbreaking” partnership with the nation’s largest hospital system, the two announced Thursday.
MountainStar, a division of HCA Healthcare, is teaming with the Addison, Texas-based imaging group to fine-tune its radiology strategy. Under terms of the partnership, Solis Mammography will oversee the hospital group’s breast imaging services in the Utah communities of Orem, Bountiful, Ogden and Salt Lake City. The two organizations said they’ll seek to open additional imaging centers in the months ahead.
The partnership comes amid low mammography compliance rates in Utah and a “critical need” for increased patient access, those involved noted.
“We’re excited about all the ways women in Utah will benefit from this unique collaboration,” Rebecca Hunter, MountainStar Healthcare’s VP of strategy for women’s health, said in a Jan. 18 announcement.
Founded in 2006, MountainStar is a Salt Lake City-based integrated health system that includes eight hospitals, three satellite imaging centers and nearly 50 physician clinics. It’s part of the larger for-profit HCA, which is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and operates 180-plus hospitals across the country. MountainStar anticipates the first screening and diagnostic breast imaging center will open Jan. 22 at its Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem.
Solis Mammography, meanwhile, was founded in 1986 and in 2018 sold a majority stake to private equity firm Madison Dearborn Capital Partners, which has rapidly expanded the imaging group since then. MDCP estimated Solis had 50 locations at the time of the buyout, with its center total more than doubling in the five years since, up to 120 across 15 major markets as of Thursday. The company grew further in December with the opening of another imaging center in Rowlett, Texas.
Solis has previously partnered with HCA in other states and in 2022 recorded adjusted earnings of $54 million.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.