Set for today at 12 pm, an OHA Listening Session about Samaritan Health. We received the press release yesterday at 12:11 pm.
Samaritan wants to combine itself with MultiCare Health System, and the Oregon Health Authority sent the press release as part of their process for vetting the deal.
We’ll leave the motivations for the last-minute nature of the press release to your imagination. In fairness, we should clarify this was OHA’s doing and not Samaritan’s. Also in fairness, it should be said OHA is offering a second Listening Session at 5:30 pm, Thursday, May 14. There’s a link below for folks that would like to attend.
Anyhow, besides the Listening Sessions, Samaritan has announced their own public town halls, and that info is below as well.
OHA’s Role, and Listening Sessions
The proposed merger of Samaritan with Washington state nonprofit, MultiCare Health System is big enough to require OHA’s approval. Plus, OHA contracts Samaritan to coordinate Medicaid services in Benton, Linn and Lincoln counties.
“Oregon Health Authority encourages members of the public to share their thoughts on a proposed business deal between two nonprofit health systems, Oregon-based Samaritan Health Services and the Washington state-based MultiCare Health System that also involves Samaritan’s InterCommunity Health Network CCO,” says the OHA press release. “OHA is particularly interested in hearing from people about the proposed transaction’s potential impacts for Medicaid members in Oregon.”
The release also says OHA’s CCO Form A Review program is hosting the two virtual Listening Sessions. Links to the virtual Listening Sessions are available at this CCO Form A webpage.
You can also provide input by emailing cco.forma@oha.oregon.gov or calling 503-945-5999. All submitted comments need to mention “InterCommunity Health Network” or “IHN-CCO”.
Samaritan also Offers Town Halls
Samaritan is also holding their own town halls. They start a week from now, and their press release came an entire two weeks early.
Registration is requested at samhealth.org/Affiliation. Here is the schedule:
Tuesday, May 19, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. – Boulder Falls Event Center, Lebanon
Wednesday, May 20, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. – Center for Health Education, Newport
Friday, May 22, noon to 1 p.m. – Virtual online, (link will be provided upon registration)
These sessions will include Samaritan President and CEO Marty Cahill. He will be joined by Samaritan leadership to discuss how the proposed affiliation could, as they see it, support patients and communities across the region, and offer opportunities to expand services.
The press release says, “Community members are encouraged to attend, ask questions, and share their perspectives.”
Background
Last October, Samaritan Health announced they had agreed to be acquired by MultiCare, which is based in Tacoma, Washington. They have been using the term affiliation, rather than merger or acquisition, but this is for all intents and purposes, looking like MultiCare is acquiring Samaritan.
MultiCare is much larger than Samaritan. A joint release at the time said MultiCare has over 28,000 employees, providers and volunteers at more than 300 primary, urgent, pediatric and specialty care locations, as well as 13 hospitals.
Samaritan serves Benton, Lincoln and Linn Counties. They operate five hospitals and 80 clinics. They have 5,000 employees, including 620 clinicians. They are currently governed by a volunteer board made up of community members, and at the time they said they will remain locally governed
Here’s what’s motivating the merger. Samaritan has been under the same pressure as many hospital systems nationwide. Costs outpacing inflation, public and private insurance reimbursements that aren’t keeping up.
Samaritan’s expenses outpaced revenue by $13.2 million in the first half of last year. Last March, Samaritan said they filed a notice of an expected technical default.
According to Oregon healthcare watchdog, The Lund Report, “To address the default notice, Samaritan hired Warbird Consultants to take a look at its finances. In late April, the firm made a variety of recommendations to increase Samaritan’s income and cut its expenses.”
The consultant concluded, “Warbird believes that Samaritan does not need to affiliate with another party for long-term survival.”
More about MultiCare
MultiCare, started off in 1882 with a hospital in Tacoma. Lund says they’ve expanded through the decades into eastern Washington and what it calls the Capital Pacific region from Olympia to the coast.
Last October, it acquired the Overlake Medical Center and Clinics in Bellevue, Washington. Their financial report disclosed that “no consideration was exchanged” in the transaction.
While this was unfolding last year, Lund Report reported, “MultiCare lost almost $39 million on an operating basis for the first six months of the year, but more than made up for it with gains from investments, with a bottom-line excess of revenues of almost $108 million. The results did not include Overlake’s financial performance.”
In any event, last year’s joint release said MultiCare will make significant investments into Samaritan over the next ten years.
What they said last year
“This affiliation represents an important step in securing the future of nonprofit health care in our region,” said Samaritan’s Cahill at the time. “Our commitment has always been to remain a community-based, mission-driven organization, and this partnership strengthens that promise for decades to come. Together, we will expand access, invest in the technology and services our communities need, and do so while keeping care nonprofit and locally governed. We are excited and honored to become MultiCare’s first health system in Oregon and to bring the benefits of MultiCare’s expertise home to the communities we serve.”
“MultiCare’s mission is partnering for healing and a healthy future, and that mission drives us to seek out like-minded organizations to ensure Pacific Northwest communities have long-term access to local care,” said MultiCare CEO Bill Robertson. “MultiCare and Samaritan are closely aligned in our mission, vision and values, making us ideal partners as we strengthen our networks across our service regions. It will be our privilege to be a part of the communities Samaritan serves and we look forward to working together to support and advance health care in Oregon.”
Samaritan has put up a webpage about the merger at samhealth.org/Affiliation.
To attend the OHA Listening Session at 5:30, Thursday, May 14, click here.
By Mike Suarez
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