DOVER — Saint Clare’s Health System’s acquisition by Prime Healthcare has been delayed until next year, according to a hospital spokesperson.
“Saint Clare’s talks with Prime Healthcare are ongoing,” Stephanie Galloway, manager of marketing communications, said in an email. “We had expected the transaction to close this year; however, due to the normal course of the state’s review process the transaction’s completion has been delayed.”
Galloway said the acquisition is now expected to close in the first half of 2014.
Prime Healthcare reached an agreement to purchase all of Saint Clare’s assetsincluding the Dover, Denville and Boonton hospitals — with the exception of the Saint Clare’s Foundation — this past May.
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The deal, which was expected to go through by late summer or early fall, would give the California-based company ownership of one of the largest healthcare systems in western New Jersey and access to tens of thousands of patients.
As previously reported by the Star-Ledger, Prime’s fast-paced expansion has some concerned about the impact a for-profit hospital could have on the quality of care.
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The state’s Department of Health has asked Prime dozens of questions about its business model, its messy legal battle with the Service Employees International Union in California, its plans for New Jersey and for the company to explain alleged misconduct that has sparked a U.S. Department of Justice investigation, the newspaper reported in May.
The state has also asked Prime to provide documents from the California Department of Health that show Prime hospitals in that state do not exceed the average rate of septicemia, acute heart failure, malignant hypertension, automatic nerve disorder or encephalopathy, the newspaper reported.
These are conditions that often receive a higher reimbursement rate from Medicare.
Prime has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying if rates are higher than average it is because their doctors are better at diagnosing those conditions, the newspaper reported. They say they simply catch what others miss, according to the newspaper.
Prime began expanding nearly three years ago, acquiring four hospitals in Texas, one in Nevada, two in Pennsylvania and two in Kansas. It already owns 14 in California.
Prime has already agreed to buy Saint Mary’s Hospital in Passaic and Saint Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, and those deals are pending state approval.
“Prime Healthcare looks forward to completing the process and partnering with Saint Clare’s,” Edward Barrera, Prime Healthcare’s communications director told NJ.com. “This past week, the Rhode Island Attorney General and the Rhode Island Department of Health gave regulatory approval for Prime Healthcare to acquire Landmark Medical Center, and we believe that Saint Clare’s will soon be joining Prime Healthcare’s expanding family as well.”
If the deal for St. Clare’s goes through, Prime Healthcare would control three hospitals in Morris County as well as an outpatient facility in Sussex, an imaging center in Parsippany and a continuing care facility in Denville. St. Clare’s employees nearly 3,000 people, admits more than 17,000 patients and treats nearly 73,00 people every year in its emergency rooms.
Date: November 01, 2013