LITTLE ROCK — A decision by the Vatican is expected this month on the proposed sale of Mercy Health hospital in Hot Springs to a private, for-profit chain, parties to the deal said Monday.
Bishop Anthony Taylor of the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock and leader of the church in Arkansas, says he had a “good, frank discussion” with officials at the Vatican in Rome as he aired his opposition to the sale.
Taylor believes that the sale would be an erosion of the charitable outreach that has defined Catholic health care since the Sisters of Mercy established a presence in Hot Springs in the 1880s.
The Vatican officials “gave no indication as to what decision they would reach as a consequence of my visit and previous visits by Mercy Health and Capella [Healthcare],” he said.
Lynn Britton, chief executive officer of Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy Health, said that the Vatican panel indicated to him that a decision would be made this month.
If the panel were to say no, there are options. The hospital could be sold to someone else, such as another Catholic organization or some sort of affiliation could be developed, with Capella, for instance.
Taylor said he has offered alternatives to Mercy Health and shared them with officials in Rome. “The most obvious is to continue to operate under church auspices, and undertake internal modifications to bring them into more-healthy economic conditions.”
Britton said that consolidation of health care is essential in Hot Springs. At one time, the city had three hospitals. Now there are two, and the community can only support one, he asserted.
The two hospitals are 166-bed National Park Medical Center, which is owned by Capella, and 309-bed Mercy Health, formerly St. Joseph Mercy.
After negotiations in which Mercy Health sought to buy National Park failed, the Catholic hospital chain offered itself for sale.
Aside from the Vatican, the sale faces review by the Federal Trade Commission, which scrutinizes such market changes for monopolistic situations that can be detrimental to patients.
Given Hot Springs’ proximity to Little Rock, the sale would “not be anywhere near a monopoly,” Britton said.
A five-year limit would be placed on elective abortions and reproductive sterilization at the hospital in order to be in line with “key components of ethical and religious directives of Catholic health care,” Britton said, adding that Capella has entered made that part of other “partnerships” with other Catholic organizations.
Acknowledging that Capella could change its position on women’s reproductive care, Britton said, “They’re not going [to want to be known] as someone who violates certain agreements or does something inappropriate from a Catholic perspective.”
A spokesman for Capella didn’t immediately return a phone call Monday evening.
Taylor said Mercy Health has sold hospitals in the past and service to the poor has suffered, he said.
In Laredo, Texas, there is a mobile clinic that provides indigent care, but if a poor person needs hospital care, he’s on his own, Taylor said.
“It simply makes sense. You’ve got a for-profit hospital and it has to turn a profit on its investment,” he said.
Britton said that Mercy Health sold its Laredo hospital to Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tenn., a publicly traded chain, which has 135 hospitals in 29 states, including eight in Arkansas.
Any hospital must provide free emergency care to the poor in order to keep its license, he said.
Britton said he was in Laredo recently and “found nothing to support the assertion that [acute] care for the poor has been diminished.”
Additionally, Britton said, Mercy Health maintains a physicians clinic to provide free primary care to the indigent, in addition to a mobile clinic and a shelter for women and children who have been the victims of domestic violence. “We’ve grown our services to the poor since we sold that hospital.”
Business, Pages 21 on 11/06/2012