ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta-area hospital system could take over the hospitals affiliated with Georgia‘s only public medical school under a deal announced Tuesday.
Any deal is removed from final though, and spokespersons on Tuesday said they may not answer key questions, including how much Wellstar might pay to take over the system’s hospitals.
It will be a part of a series of hospital mergers in Georgia and nationwide, as standalone hospitals change into large enough systems to afford massive investments in electronic record systems — and now have the market power to barter more lucrative payment agreements with insurers.
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Augusta University Health System runs the 478-bed Augusta University Medical Center and the 154-bed Kid’s Hospital of Georgia, each in Augusta. It also has regulatory approval to construct a 100-bed hospital in Grovetown, within the growing Columbia County suburbs of Augusta. The system also runs the Georgia Cancer Center in Augusta, and Roosevelt Warm Springs Rehabilitation and Specialty Hospitals in Warm Springs.
The news release announcing the letter of intent suggested the deal could help pay for the Columbia County hospital and upgrade other AU Health System facilities.
“This is sweet news for the Augusta region and for health care across our state,” Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted. “It means more doctors and medical service providers, more options for health care and greater innovation on this field are coming to Georgia communities.”
Within the 2021 fiscal yr, AU Health Systems lost $28 million on $1.06 billion in revenue — which is essentially the most recent yr for which a state audit is obtainable. Revenue included $30 million in state appropriations. The system has lost $63 million overall since 2017, audits show. AU Health Systems has been searching for a partner since 2019.
The 2 sides say that the deal could also lead to an additional expansion of the Medical College of Georgia by making a latest regional campus at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. The medical school already operates a separate four-year campus in Athens, in addition to three two-year campuses for upper-division medical students in Rome, Albany, Savannah, and Brunswick.
The announcement also said Augusta University and Wellstar would work together to expand online health care to “create more convenient access to care and supply more individualized care no matter location.”
Wellstar said it lost $122 million on the two hospitals in 2022. But critics said Wellstar pulled out without giving local officials a probability to save lots of the hospitals, eliminating certainly one of only two top-level trauma centers within the Atlanta area. This decreased available medical look after poor and mostly Black patients, and shifted burdens onto remaining hospitals, despite its obligation to supply care as a nonprofit system.
The Board of Regents, which oversees Georgia’s 26 public universities and colleges, would should approve any final agreement between AU Health Systems and Wellstar.
“By joining forces and dealing together, we will leverage Wellstar’s clinical platform and leading-edge systems to support patients while providing more opportunities for college kids to learn, train and look after residents in local communities across Georgia,” University System Chancellor Sonny Perdue said in an announcement.
A review would even be required by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and is subject to a public hearing. The Federal Trade Commission also reviews hospital mergers. Accrediting agencies would should approve an expansion of the Medical College of Georgia, however it wasn’t immediately clear in the event that they would should approve Wellstar taking up the hospitals.
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