NEW YORK – Quest Diagnostics said Thursday that it has formed a strategic laboratory collaboration with Maine healthcare system Northern Light Health.
Under the agreement, Quest will acquire select assets of Northern Light's outreach laboratory business, named Northern Light Laboratory, in an all-cash transaction and will provide management services for nine of the system's hospital labs, as well as its cancer center laboratory at Northern Light Cancer Care in Brewer, Maine.
Quest did not disclose the acquisition price.
Following the transaction, which is expected to close in Q1 2023, Quest will run non-urgent testing for Northern Light out of its Marlborough, Massachusetts, laboratory and will run tests requiring rapid turnaround out of its rapid response lab in Bangor, Maine, and certain Northern Light hospital labs.
"Diagnostic testing is a highly specialized and rapidly evolving area of medicine. By collaborating with Quest Diagnostics, the industry leader, Northern Light Health positions itself to deliver the highest level of diagnostic innovation, service and affordability while energizing our core focus on patient care," Timothy Dentry, president and CEO of Northern Light Health, said in a statement.
"Diagnostic insights are the bedrock of quality, high-value healthcare," Quest President and CEO James Davis said in a statement. "Through our clinical expertise, technological innovation, and national scale, Quest enables top health systems like Northern Light Health to optimize their laboratory services for clinical value and patient affordability. Our collaboration with Northern Light Health reflects our goal to broaden access to these critical diagnostic insights, so more people and families in Maine can lead healthier lives."
The deal follows a string of previous hospital lab acquisitions by Quest.