Caritas Christi Health Care, the state’s second largest healthcare system, informs its employees that it has reached an agreement to be purchased by Cerberus Capital Management in March 2010. Cerberus is a New-York based private equity company and the buyout moves Caritas Christi from a nonprofit company to a for-profit entity.
Caritas Christi is made up of Norwood Hospital in Norwood, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton, St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Carney Hospital in Dorchester.
Over the next six months Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office conducts an investigation into the proposed merger and holds public hearings at the six hospitals in the system.
On Oct. 6, Coakley’s office announces it reached an agreement with Cerberus for the transfer of the hospital system. Coakley’s office says under the agreement healthcare access for residents in the six Caritas communities will be preserved, 12,000 Caritas jobs will be maintained and 3,000-4,000 new jobs will be added, and $400 million in capital improvements will be made to the facilities. Cerberus agrees to fully fund the pensions of 13,000 current and former Caritas employees.
The agreement prevents Cerberus from reducing the number of inpatient and detox beds in any of the hospitals in the system. It also requires Cerberus fund a $1.5 million five-year monitoring and evaluation plan conduced by Coakley’s office about the impact of the transaction on healthcare costs and services.
Cerberus is also prevented from selling the six hospitals for three years and from closing them for five years. The following week the State Public Health Council approves the sale with the stipulations that Cerberus provides interpreter services and funds community health initiatives.
On Oct. 29 Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Spina issues his approval of the sale.
Following the approval of the Boston Archdiocese and the Vatican, Caritas announces the sale is finalized on Nov. 8.
(source:wickedlocal.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment