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ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta-area hospital system might take over the hospitals affiliated with Georgia’s solely public medical college underneath a deal introduced Tuesday.
Augusta College Well being System stated it signed a letter of intent to affix the Marietta-based nonprofit Wellstar Well being System.
Any deal is much from ultimate although, and spokespersons on Tuesday stated they might not reply key questions, together with how a lot Wellstar may pay to take over the system’s hospitals.
It might be a part of a collection of hospital mergers in Georgia and nationwide, as standalone hospitals turn into massive sufficient methods to afford large investments in digital report methods — and now have the market energy to barter extra profitable cost agreements with insurers.
Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare took over a three-hospital system primarily based in Augusta earlier this 12 months, pledging to speculate greater than $1 billion in upgrades and expansions over the following 10 years. That nonprofit group was named College Hospital, though it wasn’t managed by Augusta College.
Augusta College Well being System runs the 478-bed Augusta College Medical Heart and the 154-bed Kids’s Hospital of Georgia, each in Augusta. It additionally has regulatory approval to construct a 100-bed hospital in Grovetown, within the rising Columbia County suburbs of Augusta. The system additionally runs the Georgia Most cancers Heart in Augusta, and Roosevelt Heat Springs Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospitals in Heat Springs.
The information launch saying the letter of intent urged the deal might assist pay for the Columbia County hospital and improve different AU Well being System services.
“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 larger innovation on this subject are coming to Georgia communities.”
Within the 2021 fiscal 12 months, AU Well being Techniques misplaced $28 million on $1.06 billion in income — which is the newest 12 months 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 Techniques has been searching for a associate since 2019.
The 2 sides say that the deal might additionally end in an extra growth of the Medical Faculty of Georgia by creating a brand new regional campus at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. The medical college 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 stated 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, largely concentrated within the northwest suburbs. The system has confronted intense criticism in latest months after it shuttered Atlanta Medical Heart close to downtown Atlanta and Atlanta Medical Heart South in East Level this 12 months.
Wellstar stated it misplaced $122 million on the two hospitals in 2022. However critics stated Wellstar pulled out with out giving native officers an opportunity to save lots of the hospitals, eliminating one in every of solely two top-level trauma facilities within the Atlanta space. This decreased obtainable medical take care of poor and largely 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 influence of the closure.
The Board of Regents, which oversees Georgia’s 26 public universities and faculties, must approve any ultimate settlement between AU Well being Techniques and Wellstar.
“By becoming a member of forces and dealing collectively, we will leverage Wellstar’s medical platform and modern methods to help 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 stated in a press release.
A evaluate would even be required by Georgia Lawyer Common Chris Carr and is topic to a public listening to. The Federal Commerce Fee additionally critiques hospital mergers. Accrediting businesses must approve an growth of the Medical Faculty of Georgia, but it surely wasn’t instantly clear in the event that they must approve Wellstar taking up the hospitals.