Advocate Health Care

Advocate Health Care

Advocate Health Care was formed in 1995 through the merger of Evangelical Health Systems and Lutheran General Health System in suburban Chicago. Jim Skogsbergh assumed leadership as CEO in 2001, and the organization grew through a series of regional acquisitions before its transformational merger with Wisconsin-based Aurora Health Care in 2018, creating Advocate Aurora Health. The combined system rebranded as Advocate Health in 2022 following a subsequent combination with Atrium Health of North Carolina, placing the enterprise among the nation's largest non-profit health systems by revenue, per the system's official communications. The parent entity, Advocate Health, now operates 67 hospitals and over 1,000 care sites across six states. The investment program functions as a self-managed pool of operating reserves, insurance-related float, and philanthropic funds. Asset allocation spans public equities, fixed income, private equity, real assets, and absolute-return strategies, deployed through a combination of external manager relationships and direct co-investments. The portfolio backs the system's clinical and capital needs, including funding for new hospital pavilions, ambulatory surgery centers, and digital health platforms across its Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama footprint. Specific fund commitments and direct positions are not publicly itemized, aligning with the system's practice of limiting disclosure on individual investment manager relationships. Advocate Health's consolidated investment office oversees tens of billions in long-term pool assets, with a professional staff operating from the Oak Brook headquarters and a presence in Charlotte, North Carolina following the Atrium combination. The system maintains separate philanthropic foundations — including Advocate Charitable Foundation and Atrium Health Foundation — which collectively raise over $500 million annually for capital projects, patient care programs, and community health grants. In December 2022, Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health completed their combination, forming the third-largest non-profit health system by revenue in the country, a structure now operating as Advocate Health. Advocate's structural differentiator is its hybrid model as a health system with an internal investment office that manages reserves across multiple states and balance sheets, a posture closer to a multi-entity corporate treasury than a single-state hospital fund. The 2022 combination with Atrium Health created a multi-regional system with distinct regulatory environments across Illinois, Wisconsin, and the southeastern U.S., requiring an investment strategy that balances Illinois's insurance-heavy revenue model — Advocate is the state's largest Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliated plan operator — with North Carolina's certificate-of-need regulated hospital market.