Partners HealthCare System Inc. is in talks to acquire South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, one of the largest remaining independent hospitals in the Boston area, in a deal that would reshape the competitive landscape in the region’s health care market, according to two health care professionals who have been briefed by the parties on the negotiations.
Prepare to pay more for the monopoly, residents of Massachusetts.
Partners, the largest hospital and physicians organization in Massachusetts, has kept largely on the sidelines during a wave of consolidation that has swept through the state’s health care industry over the past 18 months. The mergers leave fewer competitors, but have resulted in better-coordinated health care, with smaller community hospitals referring more complex procedures to their affiliated academic medical centers.
One factor inhibiting Partners has been the scrutiny of regulators in the office of state Attorney General Martha Coakley, who has identified Partners hospitals as among Massachusetts’ highest paid at a time when the government is working to rein in costs.
Doc, can we talk?
See: The Massachusetts Model: The AG's Amnesia
The Boston Globe Shuts Off Its Spotlight
I guess not.
In February, however, officials at Partners signaled their eagerness to resume growing when their largest hospital, Massachusetts General in Boston, said it was negotiating a merger with Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, a move that would extend the reach of Partners beyond Eastern Massachusetts.
Related: Dicking Around the Boston Globe
Partners executives have notified Coakley’s office of their newest expansion plans and are determined to press forward, despite receiving no assurances the office would approve the acquisition of South Shore Hospital, said the industry professionals who were briefed....
Partners officials have argued privately that their acquisition of Cooley Dickinson would boost competition in Western Massachusetts, where Springfield’s Bay State Medical Center - which bid unsuccessfully for the Northampton hospital - dominates the market.
Similarly, Partners has a smaller presence south of Boston than in the northern and western suburbs, while Beth Israel Deaconess and for-profit Steward Health Care System LLC are expanding on the South Shore. Partners officials believe the rapid growth of Steward, in particular, strengthens their contention that state officials should permit them to expand, according to the health care professionals briefed on the plans.
Related: The Massachusetts Model: For-Profit is the Future
Does anyone find it odd that Catholic Caritas sold itself to a private equity firm whose mascot is the three-headed dog that guards hell?
In the meantime, South Shore Hospital is growing, with plans to add 60 beds at its South Weymouth campus by the end of the year.
The hospital draws 82,000 emergency visits annually and has 3,800 employees and 900 affiliated and employed doctors. In 2008, it won approval from the state Department of Public Health to operate the only licensed trauma center in Southeastern Massachusetts.
“We’ve been here since 1922,’’ Sarah Darcy, spokeswoman for South Shore Hospital, said. “Our mission is healing, caring, and comforting. And that will never change.’’
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