A company launched by Nashville’s Frist family to pursue opportunities in China has tweaked its name and is in talks to acquire three more hospitals in that fast-changing country.
If finalized, those deals would make Chinaco Healthcare Corp. majority owner of hospitals in Qingdao, Xiamen and Jingzhou, said Dr. Tommy Frist Jr., co-founder of the company, with his son-in-law, Chuck Elcan, its president.
China now allows full private ownership of hospitals, but Chinaco, formerly China Healthcare Corp., would jointly own those hospitals with the local governments. Plans also call for building replacement facilities, Frist said at a health-care conference hosted by local law firm Waller Landsen Dortch & Davis.
Chinaco already owns a 70-percent stake in a hospital in Cixi City, China, where a 500-bed replacement to a 150-bed hospital is being built.
“For almost every company represented in the Nashville Health Care Council, there’s a corresponding need for those services in China,” Frist said, referring to the local industry trade group. “Time and distance are among the risks.”
Frist, co-founder and chairman emeritus of HCA, revealed that the hospital chain itself had considered exploring opportunities in China, but decided against that at a time when HCA was going through a multibillion dollar leveraged buyout deal that took it private in 2006.
HCA returned to being publicly traded this year.
Much as HCA’s co-founders saw opportunities as the U.S. population shifted years ago from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt, migration from rural to urban areas in China is creating opportunities, Frist said.
“That’s creating demand for new schools, roads, utilities and new health-care providers,” he said.
Dr. Ming Wang, president of the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce and co-owner of China’s largest private eye hospital group, with 35 facilities, said especially the wealthiest Chinese people want Western-style medical care and want to have their own doctors.
That’s helping to fuel demand for new hospitals in China as well.
In the next decade, China plans to build 20,000 hospitals to meet demand, Frist said, adding that by partnering with local governments companies such as Chinaco can get help with navigating local laws and regulations and obtain all required approvals.
The name change to Chinaco was made to avoid confusion with another company, Elcan said, referring to a Dallas-based company that also is pursuing projects in the country.