Mississippi
Health system in south Mississippi seeks sale or merger
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) — A publicly owned well being system with three hospitals and greater than 30 clinics in south Mississippi intends to place itself up on the market or attempt to merge with one other well being system.
Trustees of the Singing River Well being System introduced Wednesday that that they had voted to make the transfer. A sale or merger might occur provided that supervisors in coastal Jackson County additionally agree. The supervisors meet Monday. Their vote would then result in public hearings.
Singing River has hospitals in Pascagoula, Ocean Springs and Gulfport. It has greater than 4,000 staff.
Singing River Well being System communications supervisor Ashley Butsch instructed the Solar Herald that Wednesday was the primary time the board thought of pursuing a merger or sale.
The well being system has been managing “complexities of a continually evolving healthcare business,” in response to a information launch. “During the last decade, the healthcare business has regularly modified, with group hospitals like ours dealing with the strongest headwinds.”
Butsch stated the system instructed its staff in regards to the board’s choice earlier than making a public announcement.
“If a sale or different full integration happens, the Singing River property might be offered to or absolutely built-in with the very best and greatest bidder that’s recognized in the course of the formal course of,” the information launch stated.
The discharge stated Singing River expects to interact in negotiations with Louisiana-based Ochsner Well being, however proposals could be thought of from different well being programs that may submit “presents which might be greater and/or higher than Ochsner Well being’s provide,” WLOX-TV reported.
Ochsner President and CEO Warner Thomas stated in a press release to information shops that Ochsner already has a partnership with Singing River Well being System and “it’s our purpose to enter right into a long-term absolutely built-in relationship to proceed serving the communities of the Mississippi Gulf Coast collectively.”
Ochsner operates a hospital in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and just lately expanded operations in a merger with Rush Well being System that operates hospitals in Meridian, Mississippi, and western Alabama.
Affected person care shouldn’t be affected as Singing River considers a sale or merger, Butsch stated.
“Sufferers will proceed to see the suppliers and entry providers as they at all times have — and Singing River Well being System will proceed to simply accept insurance coverage from payers as we do as we speak,” she stated.
Singing River will proceed funding the pension plan for present staff and retirees, Butsch stated.
The hospital system stopped paying into its personal pension plan from 2009 to 2014 with out telling staff and retirees. That call was a part of a monetary disaster on the county-owned hospital system. In early 2018, a federal decide dominated that Singing River should pay greater than $156 million to its pension fund over 35 years.
Earlier this yr, Singing River Well being System CEO Lee Bond abruptly resigned to pursue different profession alternatives.