Dec. 4, 2020

Sioux Falls-based Sanford Health and Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare announced today that Sanford Health has indefinitely suspended conversations about a planned merger.

This decision followed the recent departure of Kelby Krabbenhoft, president and CEO of Sanford Health for the prior 25 years. The Sanford Health board of trustees last week appointed Bill Gassen as the organization’s new president and CEO.

Given the leadership change, Sanford Health has decided to pause current merger and acquisition activity while addressing other organizational needs, the organization said in a statement.

“With this leadership change, it’s an important time to refocus our efforts internally as we assess the future direction of our organization,” Gassen said. “We continue to prioritize taking care of our patients, our people and the communities we serve as we look to shape our path forward. We have great respect for Intermountain Healthcare, Dr. Marc Harrison and their leadership team and look forward to continuing to learn from each other.”

The merger would have created one of the nation’s largest health care organizations, based in Utah, with 89,000 employees, 70 hospitals, 435 clinics and more than 1 million health plan members.

When Krabbenhoft’s departure was announced last week, the merger was said to not be impacted.

“We are disappointed but understand the recent leadership change at Sanford Health has influenced their priorities,” said Harrison, president and CEO of Intermountain. “There’s much to admire about the work that Sanford Health is doing. We continue to share a strong vision for the future of health care.”

Sanford Health to merge with Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare