What will AU-Wellstar hospital merger mean for you?

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A deliberate partnership between Augusta College Well being and an Atlanta-area well being care system displays a pattern of hospital mergers throughout the nation and within the Peach State.

Augusta College Well being mentioned Tuesday it signed a letter of intent to affix the Marietta-based nonprofit Wellstar Well being System.

It will be a part of a sequence of hospital mergers in Georgia and nationwide, as standalone hospitals turn into giant sufficient programs to afford huge investments in digital report programs — and now have the market energy to barter extra profitable cost agreements with insurers.

However how will it have an effect on well being care choices for CSRA residents.

College, Wellstar and state leaders are hailing the plans, and we have now but to listen to from anybody opposing it.

Any deal is way from remaining although, and spokespeople mentioned they may not reply key questions, together with how a lot Wellstar may pay to take over the system’s hospitals.

Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare took over College Well being primarily based in Augusta earlier this yr, pledging to speculate greater than $1 billion in upgrades and expansions over the subsequent 10 years. Regardless of the title, College wasn’t affiliated with AU.

AU Well being runs the 478-bed Augusta College Medical Middle and the 154-bed Youngsters’s Hospital of Georgia. It additionally has regulatory approval to construct a 100-bed hospital in rising Columbia County. The system additionally runs the Georgia Most cancers Middle in Augusta, and Roosevelt Heat Springs Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospitals in Heat Springs.

AU mentioned the deal might assist pay for the Columbia County hospital and improve different AU Well being System amenities.

“That is excellent news for the Augusta area and for well being care throughout our state,” Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted. “It means extra medical doctors and medical service suppliers, extra choices for well being care and better innovation on this discipline are coming to Georgia communities.”

Within the 2021 fiscal yr, AU Well being misplaced $28 million on $1.06 billion in income — which is the latest yr for which a state audit is obtainable. Income included $30 million in state appropriations. The system has misplaced $63 million general since 2017, audits present.

AU Well being has been in search of a accomplice since 2019.

The 2 sides say that the deal might additionally end in an additional growth of the Medical School of Georgia by creating a brand new regional campus at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. The medical faculty already operates a separate four-year campus in Athens, in addition to three two-year campuses for upper-division medical college students in Rome, Albany, Savannah and Brunswick.

The announcement additionally mentioned Augusta College and Wellstar would work collectively to develop on-line well being care to “create extra handy entry to care and supply extra individualized care no matter location.”

Wellstar runs 9 hospitals in suburban Atlanta, principally concentrated within the northwest suburbs.

Nonetheless, the system has confronted intense criticism in latest months after it shuttered Atlanta Medical Middle close to downtown Atlanta and Atlanta Medical Middle South in East Level this yr.

Wellstar mentioned it misplaced $122 million on the two hospitals in 2022. However critics mentioned Wellstar pulled out with out giving native officers an opportunity to save lots of the hospitals, eliminating one in all solely two top-level trauma facilities within the Atlanta space. This decreased obtainable medical take care of poor and principally Black sufferers, and shifted burdens onto remaining hospitals, regardless of its obligation to supply care as a nonprofit system.

Gov. Brian Kemp despatched $130 million in federal pandemic funds to Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta’s publicly owned hospital, to assist offset the affect of the closure.

The College System of Georgia Board of Regents must approve any remaining settlement between AU Well being and Wellstar.

“By becoming a member of forces and dealing collectively, we will leverage Wellstar’s medical platform and modern programs to assist sufferers whereas offering extra alternatives for college students to study, prepare and take care of residents in native communities throughout Georgia,” College System Chancellor Sonny Perdue mentioned in an announcement.

A assessment would even be required by Georgia Legal professional Common Chris Carr and is topic to a public listening to. The Federal Commerce Fee additionally evaluations hospital mergers. Accrediting businesses must approve an growth of the Medical School of Georgia, nevertheless it wasn’t instantly clear in the event that they must approve Wellstar taking on the hospitals.

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