South Carolina’s oldest urgent care network is changing owners for the second time in two years. We matched both networks in Medicare’s clinician file, mapped where each one operates, and traced the buildings underneath them.
The short answer: Prisma Health agreed on September 24, 2026 to acquire 36 urgent care centers across South Carolina from Novant Health, closing November 1, 2026. Terms were not disclosed. The centers, once the Doctors Care network, become Prisma Health Urgent Care, run with Atlanta-based WellStreet. The deal more than doubles Prisma’s urgent care footprint and joins what were, by our count, the two largest urgent care groups in the state.
- Two leaders become one. Before the deal, Novant’s and Prisma’s urgent care groups ranked first and second in South Carolina by clinicians billing Medicare, with 177 and 169. The next largest, CVS MinuteClinic, lists 113.
- The footprints barely overlap. Prisma is an Upstate network. Novant’s urgent cares reach the coast, the Grand Strand and the Aiken area, where Prisma lists almost no urgent care clinicians today.
- The buildings moved first. A restaurant-focused REIT bought six Novant urgent care buildings months before the sale, five of them with only about five years of lease left.
Deal Facts
Confirmed means a party press release or a public filing. Reported means statements by the parties as carried by news outlets. Neither system has posted a standalone release, so every fact above stays Reported until one appears. Status on October 31, 2026: pending, closing the next day.
Two Networks, Side by Side
Neither system has said which 36 sites are in the deal. The clearest public view of both networks is Medicare’s own clinician file, which lists every clinician who bills Medicare through a group. Healthcare Discovery, our research partner, keeps that file on its servers; here is what it shows for each urgent care group.
Novant Health Urgent Cares LLC
Prisma Health Urgent Care of South Carolina PC
Both networks run on advanced practice clinicians: 79% of Novant’s list and 74% of Prisma’s are physician assistants or nurse practitioners, with family and emergency physicians supervising. The one real difference is the mix. Novant leans on physician assistants and Prisma on nurse practitioners, which matters for staffing models and supervision rules when the teams merge.
See every clinician behind these networks. The Healthcare Discovery directory lists the physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners at each location, with specialties and affiliations.
Where Each Network Operates
Count the South Carolina cities where each group lists clinicians, sort them by region, and the logic of the deal shows up at once.
Prisma’s urgent care is concentrated in the Upstate around Greenville, Greer, Anderson and Spartanburg. Novant’s list runs along the coast, from Little River and Myrtle Beach through Charleston and Mount Pleasant to Bluffton and Hilton Head. Where the two meet, in 13 cities including Columbia, Greenville, Lexington and Sumter, is where Prisma has said a small number of sites may be consolidated.
Who Leads Urgent Care in South Carolina
Ranking South Carolina groups whose names identify them as urgent or retail care shows how much ground this deal covers. Counts are clinicians billing Medicare under each group.
If every Novant clinician moved, Prisma’s group would list as many as 346, roughly three times the next largest operator. Because only 36 of Novant’s roughly 52 sites are in the deal, the real figure will be lower. This ranking leaves out urgent cares that bill under a hospital’s own physician group, so it understates hospital-run networks.
Who Owns It: The Chain of Title
- 1981Doctors Care opens its first center in Columbia and grows into the largest urgent care operator in South Carolina. It is later owned, through UCI Medical Affiliates, by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.
- November 2024Novant Health closes its purchase of UCI from BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, taking 52 urgent care centers and 20 physical therapy clinics. Terms were not disclosed.
- August 2025Novant rebrands all 52 Doctors Care clinics as Novant Health Urgent Care.
- July and August 2026Four Corners Property Trust buys six Novant urgent care buildings in South Carolina for a combined $14.5 million.
- September 24, 2026Prisma Health agrees to buy 36 of the centers.
- November 1, 2026Expected close. Prisma owns the clinics; WellStreet runs them day to day.
Prisma’s chief operating officer describes WellStreet’s role as a management agreement, while WellStreet’s own announcements call the arrangement a joint venture. WellStreet is backed by private equity firm FFL Partners and added a credit facility from H.I.G. WhiteHorse in September 2025.
The Buyer: Prisma’s Urgent Care Build
Prisma launched its partnership with WellStreet in early 2023 and grew from 4 urgent care centers to 31 in about four years, almost all of them in the Upstate and Midlands. Adding 36 takes it to roughly 67 before consolidation. Prisma gives three reasons: easing emergency department crowding, feeding patients into its primary care practices, and covering rural areas where physicians are retiring. It plans the same model at Blount Memorial in Maryville, Tennessee, a hospital it acquired in December 2024, and will spend the next year deciding whether some acquired sites should become primary care or specialty clinics instead.
The Seller: Why Novant Is Walking Away
Novant spent heavily to enter South Carolina: about $2.4 billion for three Lowcountry hospitals from Tenet Healthcare in February 2024, then Doctors Care nine months later. Less than two years after buying the network, it is selling most of it and says it will move its South Carolina patients toward round-the-clock virtual care instead of storefront clinics. Novant has not said what happens to the roughly 16 urgent care sites outside the sale, or whether the clinics near its own coastal hospitals stay with it.
The Real Estate
Most coverage of the sale skips the buildings. Four Corners Property Trust, a REIT best known for restaurant properties, bought six Novant urgent care buildings in South Carolina before the deal was announced.
| Date | Buildings | Price | Terms disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 21, 2026 | 1 | $2.8 million | Long-term triple net lease Confirmed |
| August 5, 2026 | 5 | $11.7 million | 6.9% cap rate, about 5 years of lease left Confirmed |
The August numbers allow a rough check on rent. At a 6.9% cap rate, $11.7 million implies about $807,000 a year in rent across five buildings, or roughly $161,000 per building. For comparison, a newly built Prisma Health Urgent Care by WellStreet building in Goose Creek is being marketed with $188,400 of annual rent on a 12-year lease at an asking cap rate near 6%, and another in Sumter carries a new 15-year lease.
That gap in lease length is the story for landlords. Novant leases with about five years left are worth less than Prisma leases with 12 to 15. If Prisma takes over a Novant building and signs a fresh lease on its standard terms, the owner’s building becomes more valuable on the day the lease is signed. If Prisma consolidates that site instead, the owner holds a short lease with a tenant that is leaving the business.
Looking at urgent care net leases? Healthcare Net Lease focuses on direct ownership of urgent care, medical office and pharmacy properties, including buildings for 1031 exchange buyers.
Medical building loan maturing, or buying in a market like this? Healthcare Real Estate Fund arranges debt for maturing medical property loans and acquisition financing for healthcare real estate.
What It Means
For Patients
Most clinics stay open at their current addresses under the Prisma Health Urgent Care name. A few near existing Prisma sites may merge into nearby locations, and Prisma says affected staff will be offered jobs at neighboring clinics. Novant says it will coordinate continuity of care with the new owner.
For Investors
In the Carolinas, health systems are now the main buyers of urgent care. HCA Healthcare took 17 Urgent Care Group clinics in June 2026, and Prisma’s deal is twice that size. Private equity’s angle has shifted to managing system-branded networks, as WellStreet does, rather than owning standalone chains.
For Landlords
Owners of buildings leased to Novant urgent cares should confirm whether their site is among the 36, who the tenant of record is after November 1, and whether the site sits in one of the 13 overlap cities where consolidation is most likely.
What to Watch Next
- The site list. Which 36 centers transfer, and what Novant does with the other 16 or so. Coastal sites near Novant’s own hospitals are the ones to watch.
- Consolidation in the overlap cities. Closures in Columbia, Greenville, Lexington or Sumter would show how much of the deal is about territory versus volume.
- Lease assignments. Whether the FCPT buildings and other leased sites move to Prisma, and on what terms.
- Conversions. How many acquired urgent cares Prisma turns into primary care or specialty clinics within a year, as it says it may.
Questions People Ask
Who owns the former Doctors Care urgent care centers?
From November 1, 2026, 36 of them belong to Prisma Health and operate as Prisma Health Urgent Care. Novant Health owned them from November 2024, and BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina owned them before that.
How much did Prisma Health pay for the Novant urgent care centers?
Neither system has disclosed a price.
Will my Novant urgent care close?
Prisma says most centers will stay open at their current sites, with a small number possibly consolidated into nearby Prisma locations.
Is Prisma Health Urgent Care owned by private equity?
No. Prisma Health, a nonprofit, owns the clinics. Its operating partner, WellStreet, is backed by the private equity firm FFL Partners.
What is the largest urgent care provider in South Carolina?
By clinicians billing Medicare, Novant’s and Prisma’s urgent care groups were the two largest in the state before this deal. Once it closes, Prisma Health Urgent Care becomes the clear leader.
Related Deals
- HCA Healthcare acquires 17 Urgent Care Group clinics in the Carolinas (June 2026)
- Integrity Care Group adds 15 NextCare clinics in Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska (October 2026)
- Novant Health acquires UCI Medical Affiliates from BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina (November 2024)
For what the change means for patients, read Your Novant Urgent Care Is Becoming Prisma Health: What Changes for Patients on Healthcare Discovery, and look up the clinicians in the Healthcare Discovery doctor directory.
How We Built This Page
Deal facts come from statements by the two systems as reported by news outlets, plus Four Corners Property Trust’s own press releases. Clinician counts, specialties and cities come from the CMS Doctors and Clinicians national file (October 2026 download), matched by group practice ID by Healthcare Discovery. A clinician who works at several locations is counted once per group. Regional charts count cities, not clinics, because 123 Novant clinicians list a single Aiken address that appears to be a central billing location.
Last verified October 31, 2026.
Sources
- WCSC Live 5: Prisma Health to acquire 36 South Carolina urgent care centers from Novant Health
- Becker’s Hospital Review: Prisma is betting on urgent care growth
- Healthcare Dive: Novant closes UCI Medical Affiliates purchase
- SC Biz News: Novant rebrands 52 Doctors Care clinics
- FCPT: Novant Health Urgent Care property for $2.8 million
- FCPT: Five Novant Health Urgent Care properties for $11.7 million
- WellStreet: Prisma Health Urgent Care Laurens opening
- JUCM: WellStreet and FFL Partners
- H.I.G. WhiteHorse: credit facility for WellStreet Urgent Care
- Crexi: Prisma Health Urgent Care listing, Goose Creek
- Revere: Prisma Health Urgent Care, Sumter
- Chief Healthcare Executive: Novant completes $2.4 billion Tenet hospital deal
- Spectrum News: HCA acquires 17 Urgent Care Group clinics
- CMS Doctors and Clinicians national file, October 2026, analyzed by Healthcare Discovery