MEDNAX Ties Up With Georgia Neonatology For Better Baby Care

MEDNAX, Inc. (NYSE:MD) recently announced its affiliation to Georgia Neonatology, LLC, a private neonatology practice located in Athens, GA. However, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Since 2013, Georgia Neonatology has been providing neonatology services to Piedmont Healthcare’s Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center location. Its services specialize in the neonatal care for preterm newborns and seriously ill babies. MEDNAX now caters to five of the eight Neonatal intensive care units(NICUs) with the help of its network of affiliated physicians in the Piedmont Healthcare system.

Notably, Georgia Neonatology will gain from MEDNAX’s national network of enriched resources that consists of proprietary electronic health record. MEDNAX will help the latter upgrade its practice while allowing the same to team up with colleagues across the nation to provide premier neonatal care.

This alliance adds to MEDNAX’s wide array of services in Georgia through its network of affiliated physicians in various specialties including pain management, anesthesiology,maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology, newborn hearing screen, obstetric hospitalist, pediatric hospitalist and radiology.

The company is currently affiliated with more than 400 NICUs across 36 states as well as Puerto Rico.

The above deal, which was a cash transaction, is expected to be immediately accretive to the company’s earnings.

This move is in line with the company’s strategy to expand its reach via inorganic growth. The entity has been collaborating with several companies over the past many years. It also acquired a few companies, namely vRad that helped it to extend its services in telemedicine. The companyseeks to purchase the physicians’ practices group and the complementary service businesses. During 2018, the company bought nine physician group practices including five radiology practices, two neonatology practices and two other pediatric subspecialty practices, which enabled the company to boost its national network of physician practices.

The company's inorganic growth measures are backed by its solid capital position. Its balance sheet strength, which assists in efficient capital management, should attract investors’ attention.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company have plunged 49.6% in a year’s time against its industry’s growth of 18.3%. Rising expenses and high debt level dragged down its stock.

Stocks to Consider

Investors interested in the medical sector can take a look at some better-ranked stocks like Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) , Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) and WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE:WCG) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Anthem and subsidiaries operate as a health benefits company in the United States. In the last four quarters, the company delivered average beat of 7.1%.

Centene operates as a diversified, multi-national healthcare enterprise in the United States. The company came up with average earnings surprise of 4.99% in the trailing four quarters.

WellCare Health offers managed care services to government-sponsored health care programs. The company pulled off average positive surprise of 15.43% in the preceding four quarters.

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