Nu-Med to Sell 5 Hospitals Bought in ’85

Nu-Med, an Encino-based hospital chain, said it has reached a definitive agreement to sell five rural hospitals to First Health Inc., a privately held Batesville, Miss., company, for $12.2 million in cash and securities.

The deal is subject to the approval of state health agencies. The hospitals, in Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, were acquired by Nu-Med a year ago from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based U.S. Health Corp. as part of a larger deal.

Under the agreement, First Health will buy 210 licensed beds at an average price of about $58,000 each. In April, 1985, Nu-Med purchased seven acute-care hospitals from U.S. Health. At the time, the company said the transaction amounted to buying 673 hospital beds at an average price of $108,000 a bed.

Loss on Sale Denied

Stuart Bruck, Nu-Med’s vice president for marketing, said the company is not losing any money on the sale, however. He said the two hospitals that the company retained from the original U.S. Health deal are larger and have a higher average value per bed. Pembroke Pines General Hospital near Fort Lauderdale has 301 beds, and Lake Community Hospital in Leesburg, Fla., has another 162 beds.

Bruck also noted that those two hospitals include medical office buildings and are on larger--and ostensibly more valuable--plots.

Upon completion of the deal, Nu-Med will own and operate 10 acute-care hospitals in the United States. Nu-Med also owns three psychiatric hospitals with 281 beds and has three more under construction. It also owns 11 medical buildings.

Last month, a former New York City hospital chief was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on charges of profiting through a special purchase of Nu-Med stock in 1983. The indictment alleged that the deal was designed to influence the city Health and Hospitals Corp. to give contracts to Nu-Med. The Encino company has denied the allegations.