Yesterday, five North Jersey hospitals announced plans to sell, explore a merger, and seek a new buyer to help solidify their existence in this turbulent health care market. Children’s Specialized nor our partner RWJ were among them. Take a breath.
We knew this was coming.
Is Children’s Specialized talking with other health systems or hospitals about mergers or acquisitions? As a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Health System, we stand strong under their powerful umbrella of services. The system is in constant state of conversations with many because of their strong market position. We provide such specialized care that our services will always be unique and the talk of us “merging” with another pediatric rehabilitation hospital is non-existent. We have a 120 year history of providing services for children with special needs and we will see it through for another 100 years.
What does this mean for you? Change is happening all around us and the best way we can remain in the forefront of this evolution is to remain vigilant at responding to doctors and hospitals who want us to care for their kids, improve our processes, cut expenses and continue to improve the quality of our care. Even if our services are so unique, we still are a “health care service provider” and we are faced with the same challenges as all hospitals. Our reimbursement rates are decreasing, our federal and state funding is diminishing and the funding we do receive will be based on the quality of the service we provide and patient satisfaction.
Below is an article that was in today’s Star-Ledger detailing the news about the mergers.
I will continue to share this information with you and give you an opportunity to ask questions. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or your supervisor.
We will discuss this further as we pick up another round of our employee meetings. Keep an eye on the intranet for a schedule. Meetings to begin in late February.
- Amy
Star-Ledger/NJ.com - Thursday, February 02, 2012, 7:35 AM
Big hospital merger plans part of dizzying day for N.J. medical industry
By Susan K. Livio and Seth Augenstein/The Star-Ledger
It was a dizzying day for the hospital industry Wednesday, as executives from five North Jersey hospitals announced plans to sell, explore a merger, and seek a new buyer to shore up their stake in the state’s competitively "harsh" health care market.
Industry experts said even more sales and consolidations were looming as hospitals brace for the financial consequences of the federal health care reform law — insuring more people while cutting costs — which will take effect in two years.
Kerry McKean Kelly, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Hospitals Association, said health care reform was driving a lot of the discussions about consolidation and partnerships. "There might be a single payment for an ‘episode of care’ that would be divided between home health aides, physicians, nursing homes, hospitals," she said.
In addition, she said New Jersey’s "harsh marketplace," with high costs and limited reimbursements, was also forcing hospitals to rethink their business model.
The state Department of Health and Senior Services must approve any hospital sale or merger.
According to Wednesday's announcements:
• Hackensack University Medical Center and its investment partner, LHP Hospital Group, announced the purchase of Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge for $190 million — $160 million more than owners Merit Health Systems paid in 2007. Hackensack and LHP are already awaiting state approval to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood.
• Ascension Health Care Network of St. Louis, Mo, the nation’s largest Catholic hospital system, confirmed that it is talking to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Passaic and St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, for the "potential creation of a new Catholic health care system in New Jersey," a spokesman for Ascension, Joe Orlando, said.
• Prime Healthcare of California dropped its bid to buy Christ Hospital in Jersey City. "Christ Hospital must now work through very difficult financial challenges, and it remains to be seen if there is another viable way forward," said Peter Kelly, the hospital’s president and chief executive.
• St. Luke’s Hospital and Health Network announced it would add Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg to its roster of facilities in of Lehigh Valley, Pa., with plans of reviving maternity services and investing up to $6 million in its intensive care unit.
Industry insiders also expect an announcement soon regarding Barnabas Health, the state’s biggest hospital chain, which has held lengthy talks with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey over University Hospital.
The two said in a statement that they were pursuing an affiliation, but that any change would "preserve the clinical, academic and research alignment between The University Hospital and the UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School." Industry observers have said this simply means Barnabas Health would run University Hospital.
The new owners of Mountainside told employees there would be no layoffs, and that services would be expanded if the state Department of Health and Senior Services approved the sale.
"There will be no impact to staff at all — everyone will be hired for the same positions and same salary,’’ a spokeswoman for the hospital group, Pat Ball, said. "There are no plans to discontinue services."
The collapse of talks involving the purchase of Christ Hospital by Prime Healthcare — which is under investigation in California — was welcome news for the nurses’ union, which publicly fought the sale
"This welcome withdrawal of Prime Healthcare from its intended purchase of our community hospital represents a new opportunity to protect access to quality health care for our patients and residents," said Ann Twomey, president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees.
Ascension’s arrival would preserve the dwindling presence of Catholic hospitals in the state, said Donald Malafronte of the Urban Health Institute. "St. Mary’s has been marketed around for awhile," he said, while St. Joseph’s is carrying a lot of debt.
No comments:
Post a Comment