CLEVELAND—Healthcare leaders and local officials celebrated the completion of the Global Center for Health Innovation, a long-planned venue to showcase healthcare technology and ideas. Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald told about 400 invited guests to the Oct. 8 ceremony that the $465 million, 1 million square-foot facility “will be a catalyst for economic and community improvement,” according to Crain's Cleveland Business. The Global Center for Health Innovation, built on the Cleveland Convention Center complex, opens to the public in February and this week...
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MINNEAPOLIS—Fairview Health Services, looking to rebound from a billing controversy and a failed deal with Sanford Health, announced that system has hired Rulon Stacey to take the helm Nov. 4. Stacey, who recently said he would leave the University of Colorado Health, will succeed Mark Eustis, who retired as the system's president and CEO more than a year ago as Fairview faced inquiries into its billing and collection practices, and Charles Mooty, Fairview's board chairman, has served as the system's interim CEO. Fairview met with scrutiny in early 2012 after Minnesota Attorney...
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Ruth Rothstein, the former chief of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services who was credited for turning around what was once an outdated public health system in Chicago into one of the country's leading models and was considered a major figure among public hospital leaders, has died at the age of 90.
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MAYWOOD, Ill.—Loyola University Chicago is scheduled to break ground Aug. 16 on a new $137 million medical research and education building at its Health Sciences Campus in Maywood. A collaborative project with Catholic Health East-Trinity—the parent of Loyola University Health System—the five-story, 227,000-square-foot Loyola University Chicago Center for Translational Research and Education is scheduled to open in April 2016. “This project is one of the most significant outcomes of the partnership of Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University Health System...
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JOLIET, Ill.—A Will County judge last week ordered the Illinois health facilities board to explain why it approved Centegra Health System's plan for a new $233 million hospital in Chicago's northwest suburbs even though the panel's staff found that the proposal didn't meet state standards. The judge's ruling gives new hope to competitors that objected to the new hospital. In July 2012, Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved a Centegra proposal for a 128-bed hospital in Huntley, an abrupt reversal of an earlier decision to reject the plan. The staff of the...
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PORTLAND, Maine—Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems acquired Mercy Health System in Portland on Oct. 2 after winning approval from state regulators. Mercy was previously owned by Catholic Health East, which recently merged with Trinity Health and is Brewer-based EMHS' eighth hospital in the state. “Our efforts as a healthcare system to deliver the right care, in the right place, and at the right time will be enhanced with the addition of Mercy Hospital to EMHS,” Michelle Hood, the not-for-profit system's president and CEO, said in a news release. Under the terms of the...
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NEWARK, N.J.—WellCare Health Plans has an agreement to buy some assets of Healthfirst Health Plan of New Jersey (known as Healthfirst NJ) as the company enters the Medicaid managed-care market in the state. New Jersey recently granted the Tampa-based company permission to begin offering Medicaid managed care in Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Passaic and Union counties starting Dec. 1, though the CMS still has to give final approval. New Jersey would become the ninth state in which WellCare provides...
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The newly branded Mount Sinai Health System must set about the delicate work of consolidating the operations of two of New York City's largest hospitals.
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HACKENSACK,N.J.—Seven systems that include 25 hospitals in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania are banding together in an alliance seeking the benefits of scale without the complications of merging assets. Providers clearly believe bigger is better in this era, and these systems are the latest to explore a kind of affiliation that does away with formal integration, and instead focuses on managing population health and increasing their joint purchasing power. Known as AllSpire Health Partners, the alliance brings together systems with combined revenue of $10.5 billion. Members of...
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NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.—New York City-based Montefiore Health System announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York for its affiliates to acquire the assets of Sound Shore Health System. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close this fall. At that time, Montefiore will begin to provide services at Sound Shore Medical Center, New Rochelle, N.Y., Mount Vernon (N.Y.) Hospital and Schaffer Extended Care Center, New Rochelle. Montefiore said it would ensure healthcare services to residents of New Rochelle, Mount...
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AUSTIN, Texas—The Texas Health Services Authority and the Health Information Trust Alliance are partnering to develop and implement a program that will improve the security of health information for Texas residents. The two organizations will run the Texas Covered Entity Privacy and Security Certification Program, which incorporates state and federal privacy and security regulations. Entities in Texas, the first state to have such a program, will be able to get a certification recommendation from HITrust by undergoing an assessment of their compliance with 2011 revisions to the...
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DALLAS—The biggest not-for-profit healthcare player in Texas is now Baylor Scott & White Health, a system formed last week when Baylor Health Care System and Scott & White Healthcare consummated a long-planned merger. The organization has 43 hospitals, including joint ventures, and combined revenue of $5.9 billion, based on unaudited 2013 figures. The system spans 24 counties from the northern suburbs of Dallas to Brenham, about 80 miles northwest of Houston. The deal—which took 10 months to complete after the letter of intent was...
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BATON ROUGE, La.—Management of two LSU hospitals in north Louisiana is being turned over to a not-for-profit research foundation that has never run a patient-care facility, raising concerns about whether it has the experience and the financing needed to oversee the public hospitals. The privatization of the university-run hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe is in contrast to the approach Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration took in south Louisiana, where nearly all of LSU's facilities are being overseen by companies that run other private hospitals in the area. The Biomedical...
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KINGSPORT, Tenn.—With the help of six employers in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, Wellmont Health System in Kingsport introduced a free community health initiative known as Wellmont LiveWell. Eastman Chemical Co., Food City, Alpha Natural Resources, Domtar Corp., Electro-Mechanical Corp., and Strongwell are the partners working with Wellmont to provide the online portal focused on a commitment to wellness and healthy living. The website, launched on July 10, allows participants to take a personal health assessment, access a health library and calendar of local health...
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INVERNESS, Fla.—The Citrus County Hospital Board narrowed the bidding for its struggling Citrus Memorial Health System to three for-profit suitors. The board received five proposals from four bidders looking to take over the hospital, which is saddled with $80 million in debt and $30 million in underfunded pension liabilities. Initially, four bidders were vying for the 198-bed hospital: HCA, Nashville; RegionalCare Hospital Partners, Brentwood, Tenn.; Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital; and Health Management Associates, Naples, Fla., which submitted two proposals. The board eliminated...
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LOS ANGELES—City of Hope, a comprehensive cancer center based in Duarte, Calif., reached a preliminary deal with Providence Health & Services to provide oncology services at the system's Southern California network of hospitals, doctors' offices and clinics. The two healthcare organizations signed a letter of intent to form a partnership they say will provide cancer patients in the region more accessible and affordable high-quality care. “All patients deserve appropriate access to the most advanced treatment options and expertise available, and their healthcare providers...
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SEATTLE—Anthony “Tony” Armada is leaving Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in suburban Chicago to become CEO on Nov. 1 of Swedish Health Services, the largest health system in Seattle. Armada, 53, has been president of Advocate Health's Park Ridge, Ill., teaching hospital since 2009, joining the Chicago area's largest system after five years as president and CEO of Henry Ford Hospital and Health Network in Detroit. In Seattle, he succeeds interim Swedish CEO Marcel Loh, who stepped in after Kevin Brown left to become president and CEO of Atlanta-based Piedmont...
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BOISE, Idaho—In a case that will help define how antitrust regulators view hospital acquisitions of doctor practices for years to come, the Federal Trade Commission is scheduled to open a four-week civil trial in Idaho this week in an attempt to unwind the purchase of the state’s largest multispecialty physician group by its dominant health system, St. Luke’s Health System. Hospitals across the country have been buying up doctor’s offices at a rapid clip in recent years, driven by financial goals and a federal edict to coordinate care. FTC officials have...
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LEADVILLE, Colo.—An affiliation and services agreement has been signed between Centura Health and St. Vincent Hospital, a 12-bed critical-access institution in Leadville, with a 13-bed nursing home unit. The affiliation agreement calls for developing shared programs to complement and expand clinical services, sharing of best practices, and educating and developing staff, according to a news release. “Affiliating with Centura Health allows St. Vincent Hospital to remain locally controlled and responsive to the needs of our community, but gives us access to the resources and...
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ROSEVILLE, Calif.—Adventist Health, a California-based health system with 18 hospitals in four states, plans to seek California's approval for an insurance license before the end of the year. It would be Adventist's first insurance license, though it will be a limited license. An insurance license will better position the health system to take on financial risk for patients' care under new, global payment contracts with private insurers, Medicare and Medicaid that have emerged across the industry and under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, said Jeff Conklin,...
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