Forum Health‘s $120 million sale to a for-profit Tennessee hospital company appears to be nearly wrapped up now that Ohio’s attorney general has given his blessing to the deal.
Community Health Systems Inc. on Oct. 1 expects to finalize its purchase of the three-hospital system in Youngstown, Ohio, that filed for bankruptcy about 18 months ago, the Youngstown Vindicator reported.
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray spent about a month reviewing the deal before publicly giving it the green light Monday afternoon. Cordray said Community Health is making “a significant commitment to the future” in pledging to invest at least $80 million in Forum’s three hospitals — Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Warren — over the next five years, the Youngstown Business Journal Daily reported.
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Also paving the way for a sale to go through, one of the three unions representing Forum’s employees on Monday night voted to ratify a labor contract with the Tennessee company. The new contract with the Ohio Nurses Association expires July 19, 2011, the Vindicator reported.
The Service Employees International Union District 1199 has already begun voting on a new deal with Community Health, while the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have yet to reach an agreement that it could put to a member vote.
The unions have expressed concerns that for-profit Community Health would prioritize profits over patient care, and also that the company has a history of labor disputes with its hospital workers. Cordray acknowledged those concerns and said he’d take legal action if the company failed to live up to its responsibilities in the labor contracts.
Last month, Cordray also said he’d hold Community Health accountable to its charity care commitments, after some in the Youngstown area said they were concerned that Forum’s switch to for-profit status would endanger those commitments. However, Forum Health’s pledge to adopt an indigent care policy to provide free or discounted care, and to participate in Medicare and Medicaid for at least the next five years seems to have allayed Cordray’s concerns.
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Community Health owns, operates or leases 123 hospitals across the country, including Affinity Medical Center in Massillon, Ohio.
