The joint venture coupling Nashville-based Ardent Health Services with Amarillo's Baptist Community Services has completed the ownership change of the West Texas city's BSA Health System. Ardent now owns 80 percent of the network, which includes a hospital, a cancer center, various clinics and a health plan, among others. The company has committed to investing tens of millions of dollars in renovation and new construction projects.

The New Mexico hospitals under the umbrella of Ardent Health Services have stopped letting a group of more than 70 doctors treat patients of the company's insurance plan. Ardent's Lovelace Health Plan in October accused ABQ of violating the parties' non-solicitation clauses.

Lovelace Health Plan, the insurance arm of the Albuquerque-area health system owned by Ardent Health Services, is accusing a physician group of trying to mislead patients and steer them to other insurers. The case is part of a stand-off between the two organizations, whose contract to work with each other expires early next month.

ABQ Health Partners’ actions, the complaint said, are a violation of the “non-conversion and non-solicitation provisions of the Group Managed Care Agreement” the two firms have. Under that agreement, “providers are precluded from attempting to persuade beneficiaries to enroll” in specific health plans, the lawsuit said.

According to a story in the Albuquerque Journal, Ardent Health Services subsidiary Lovelace Health System has a deal to purchase the Roswell, N.M., hospital that Community Health Systems walked away from last week. The five-year-old facility would be Ardent's fifth in New Mexico.

Lovelace Health System has signed a letter of intent to buy the 26-bed Roswell Regional Hospital and its Family Care Clinic for an undisclosed amount, the Albuquerque-based company announced Friday.

Lovelace CEO Ron Stern said the deal should close about Jan. 31.

“Roswell Regional has the potential to be a true regional hospital in the southeastern part of the state,” Stern said. “Our intention is to create services so patients can stay in the community and, to the degree possible, be served and (only when necessary) be referred to Albuquerque.”

The M&A attorneys for Vanguard Health Systems, Ardent Health Services, AmSurg, Community Health Systems and Brookdale Senior Living have been busy lately. Vanguard has completed its $210 million purchase of 51 percent of Texas hospital system Valley Baptist. Meanwhile, Ardent wrapped up its deal for two CHS hospitals in Oklahoma and AmSurg completed its acquisiton of Dallas-based National Surgical Care. Lastly, Brookdale put a bow on its acquisition of Horizon Bay Realty, whose assets are primarily in Texas and Florida. The last deal also involved negotiations for a Brookdale option to up to 20 percent of the U.S. portfolio of Chartwell Seniors Housing Real Estate Investment Trust.

Hospital chain Ardent Health Services is adding on to the services it buys from Atlanta-based Surgical Information Systems. The local company will install a suite of software that will automate and integrate the anesthesia and medication information given to patients as part of surgery. Ardent runs health systems comprising more than 1,400 beds in New Mexico and Oklahoma.