RI Healthcare Monopoly — Brown and Lifespan Announce Deal and CharterCARE’s Fate Is Unknown

RI Healthcare Monopoly — Brown and Lifespan Announce Deal and CharterCARE’s Fate Is Unknown

Rhode Island healthcare monopoly is at it again.

Just two years after regulators shot down one deal, Lifespan and Brown University announced another healthcare deal.

In February of 2022, the Federal Trade Commission and the Rhode Island Attorney General rejected a Brown, Lifespan, and Care New England merger, citing that it would be anti-competitive and would increase healthcare costs.

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“Put simply, if this extraordinary and unprecedented level of control and consolidation were allowed to go forward, nearly all Rhode Islanders would see their healthcare costs go up, for healthcare that is lower in quality and harder to access,” said Peter Neronha in February of 2022.

This time, the deal is different. Care New England is out. The Lifespan name is going away and the hospital group will be rebranded “Brown University Health.”

A marketing scheme will be launched on an undetermined date to push out the new name.

The agreement announced Thursday claims the deal includes reciprocal financial investments between Lifespan and Brown, which will continue as separate, independent organizations after the implementation of the Lifespan rebrand to Brown University Health.

According to the parties, a $15 million to $25 million annual investment from Brown to Lifespan, totaling $150 million over seven years, will be devoted to "strengthening Lifespan’s financial capacity to sustain and advance the shared academic mission of the two organizations." Following that period, Lifespan will invest $15 million annually to support the Warren Alpert Medical School’s education and research efforts.

It is unclear why one entity is paying the other, and then the two roles are being reversed.

Neither of the two entities pays property taxes. Brown struck an agreement with Providence to pay a fraction of what Yale pays New Haven. Lifespan has repeatedly refused to make a payment in lieu of taxes to Providence.

 

ChartCARE on the Brink

The Brown and Lifespan deal takes place as the state’s third-largest hospital group, CharterCARE, faces an uncertain fate.

Last week, Judge Brian Stern ordered CharterCARE and or its parent company to make a $17 million payment — that payment to unpaid vendors is due on Friday.

And all this is taking place while Prospect is trying to sell CharterCare to a Georgia entity.

As GoLocal unveiled in December of 2023, CharterCare, Rhode Island's third-largest healthcare group, is trying to conclude a deal with The Centurion Foundation (Centurion), a Georgia-based foundation that has just one full-time employee, according to the Foundation’s most recent tax documents.

The Rhode Island Attorney General and the Rhode Island Department of Health are presently reviewing that proposed sale and are scheduled to make announce a decision next week.

However, the $17 million payment in Rhode Island is minor compared to Prospect’s failed sale of three hospitals in Yale New Haven in Connecticut.

 

Emergency Room Capacity

Roger Williams Hospital provides critical additional emergency room capacity. Rhode Island already has among the longest ER waiting times in the U.S. A disruption of services at Roger Williams would only add more chaos to the healthcare system.

Patients wait on average 214 minutes — only Maryland at 242 minutes and Washington, D.C. rank worse. DC's average waiting time is 329 minutes.

Rhode Island's waiting times have risen nearly 600% in the past in the past seven years. A 2016 report found that RI's average ER waiting time was 31 minutes.

 

Connecticut Litigation

Yale New Haven Hospital was to purchase three hospitals from Prospect, but that deal is now embroiled in litigation.

The deal was set to close this year, but Yale New Haven bowed out.

In recent weeks, the conflict heated last week after Prospect sued the hospital’s would-be buyer, Yale New Haven Health, alleging the health system had “actively worked to prevent” the deal from closing in a bid to get a lower purchase price.

According to Healthcare Dive, "Yale signed a binding agreement to acquire three hospitals from Prospect in 2022 for $435 million. However, the health system alleges Prospect has neglected the properties since that time, driving the facilities into “dire” conditions. Last month, Yale filed its own suit to get out of the deal. Now Prospect is petitioning Connecticut’s Superior Court to hold Yale to its word and force it to complete the deal. The complaint alleges Yale 'knew it was purchasing struggling hospitals' and had agreed to acquire the facilities on an 'as-is' basis.