...NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) July 24, 2018--S&P Global Ratings today said that its ratings on Brentwood, Tenn.-based hospital operator RegionalCare Hospital Partners Holdings Inc. (B/Stable/--) are unaffected by the announcement that its financial sponsor, Apollo, will purchase rural health system operator LifePoint Health Inc. (##-/Watch Negative/--) and combine it with RegionalCare. The transaction is valued at $5.6 billion. The merger of RegionalCare and LifePoint would increase the combined company's scale and geographic diversification, which allows for diversification of demographic trends, economic environments, and Medicaid and payor trends. However, we believe there is significant integration risk in combining the companies. While financing details have not yet been announced, we expect the combined business to operate at leverage levels at least as high as RegionalCare's today, given financial sponsor ownership. Collectively, these factors continue to support our 'B' rating....
