New Hampshire officials opposed Partners HealthCare's continued expansion into the state, claiming that the health system's proposed acquisition of Exeter Health Resources would diminish competition.
Partners' Massachusetts General Hospital's plans to acquire Exeter (N.H.) Health Resources, an independent system that includes a hospital, a physician group, home health and hospice agency, and a real estate management subsidiary. Exeter would merge with Dover, N.H.-based Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, which Mass General acquired in 2017, to create NewCo, a New Hampshire not-for-profit entity. NewCo was also the name used for the first iteration of what is now Beth Israel Lahey Health.
After a year-long review by the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau, Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said the combination would violate state law requiring free and fair competition.
"New Hampshire patients already pay some of the highest prices for health care in the country," he said in prepared remarks. "Based on our investigation, we have concluded that this transaction implicates our laws protecting free and fair competition and therefore threatens even higher health care costs to be borne by New Hampshire consumers."
The AG's Charitable Trusts Unit report followed a notice of intent to take civil enforcement action issued on Sept. 13 by the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau.
Partners officials said they look to continue talks with the attorney general to allay antitrust concerns.
"We remain fully committed to seeing this transaction through and are confident that the Attorney General's Office will ultimately determine that our affiliation will pass antitrust review based on the thorough review that the expert economists have completed on this proposal," Dr. Peter Slavin, Massachusetts General Hospital president, said in prepared remarks.
In a public forum last year, Exeter officials said that the new regional health system would bolster their electronic health record capabilities and streamline care, offer scale to grow services, and enhance care quality.
Economists counter that hospital consolidation often inflates prices thanks to reduced competition and that so-called efficiencies don't often reach expectations.
Under the deal, NewCo would be substituted as the sole member of Exeter Health Resources and Wentworth-Douglass Hospital. Mass General would become the sole member of NewCo, giving it significant control over the governance and operations, which is a matter of "considerable interest to this state," the report said.
Exeter Hospital, a 100-bed hospital with outpatient programs in surgery, radiation, oncology and cardiac catheterization, and Wentworth-Douglass Hospital are within 18 miles of each other and provide similar inpatient and outpatient services, according to the report. Both Exeter and Wentworth-Douglass own a significant number of physician practices, such as Exeter's 140-doctor group that offers primary care, pediatrics, orthopedics, gastroenterology and other specialties. Within the seacoast region, there are a limited number of healthcare entities of size and breadth similar to Exeter and Wentworth-Douglass that also own physician practices, the report said.
"Should EHR, WDH and MGH take further steps to consummate the transaction despite the objection set forth in this report, the Charitable Trusts Unit will bring judicial proceedings and seek injunctive relief," New Hampshire authorities said in the report.
Partners has continued to try to expand into neighboring states, with varying success. The Boston-based integrated health system was targeting an entry point into the Rhode Island market through a deal with Care New England, adding Lifespan to the proposed talks early last year. It later dropped Lifespan and ultimately nixed the entire deal in June.
Establishing a presence in Rhode Island was an emphasis of Dr. David Torchiana, former president and CEO of Partners. Torchiana retired in April, making way for Dr. Anne Klibanski, who took on the interim CEO role in February and officially became the system's first female chief executive in June.
Partners has been criticized for its high prices stemming from higher than average inpatient and academic medical center utilization. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health said that a significant driver behind their merger late last year was to keep Partners in check.
Partners reported operating income of $309.9 million on operating revenue of $13.31 billion in 2018, up from $52.6 million in operating income on $13.37 billion of operating revenue in 2017, according to Modern Healthcare's Health System Financials database.
Through three quarters of its fiscal 2019, Partners reported operating income of $450 million on total operating revenue of to $10.4 billion. That was up from $275 million of operating income on $10 billion of total operating revenue over the same period the year prior.
