Centurion’s Demands for State Funding to Finance CharterCARE Jumps to $36M

GoLocalProv News Team

Centurion’s Demands for State Funding to Finance CharterCARE Jumps to $36M

IMAGE: CharterCARE
On Sunday, GoLocal reported that Centurion Foundation was asking the state to help finance its failed deal to buy the bankrupt CharterCARE hospitals with an injection of $18 million in taxpayer funds.

Now, just days later, Centurion’s ask has jumped to $36 million according to those with direct knowledge.

Centurion is an Atlanta-based non-profit that has never operated a hospital and missed the deadline to close the purchase of bankrupt CharterCARE, which was January 15.

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Last Friday night, Centurion’s CEO Ben Mingle sent a letter to state leaders and other involved parties claiming the company could secure some of the financing — about $85 million — conditional on the state providing $18 million in financing.

Mingle wrote, "I am pleased to inform you that we have secured verbal commitments from four (4) investors at an aggregate amount sufficient to facilitate the closing of our proposed acquisition of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital (and related assets) from Prospect Medical Holdings in accordance with state requirements. As a result of this development, we are now working with those investors to engage purchaser’s counsel and will be formalizing bond purchase agreements with each investor.”

READ THE HISTORY OF CHARTERCARE'S FINANCIAL TROUBLES

“Each investor has clearly stated that their investment is subject to, and conditioned upon, having a state-funded bond reserve fund in the amount of $18 million. Centurion Foundation respectfully requests that legislation be introduced at the earliest possible time to allow for the approval and implementation of this bond reserve fund. Subject to the timing of enactment of the legislation establishing and funding the bond reserve fund, Centurion is working diligently to close this transaction not later than February 28, 2026,” added Mingle.

The total amount Centurion is trying to close is far less than the $150 million. GoLocal is told the number is less than $90 million.

State leaders have not agreed to the request, in part, because Centurion has yet to provide written proof of the commitments of the investments and how the significantly smaller amount can financially stabilize the troubled hospital group. 

 

Nurses' Union Support Centurion, Previously, It Opposed Their Purchasing CharterCARE

On Tuesday, in a statement from UNAP, Brad Dufault, a spokesperson for the union, said: 

The United Nurses and Allied Professionals has been steadfast in asking state leaders to do whatever it takes to keep these important community hospitals open. Centurion now has a deal in place to close by the end of February, with the condition that state leaders pass legislation creating an $18 million reserve fund, only to be used as a backstop. This is the quickest and possibly only way to get this deal done in the next six weeks. We are calling on state leaders to move quickly, pass this legislation, and save these important community hospitals. 

In March of 2024, UNAP blasted the sale of CharterCARE to Centurion.

“We took a good hard look at the application when it was made public, and it didn’t take long to find a business model that is simply not credible or viable,” stated UNAP General Counsel Chris Callaci. “There are a number of significant issues in Centurion’s application, with the most glaring being the fact that they are an unknown entity that has never owned or operated a hospital or healthcare facility. They are not bringing any capital to the table and plan to saddle our community hospitals with more than $133 million in debt – money they aren’t on the hook to pay back. The closer we look, the worse this application gets.”  

UNAP cited a number of major concerns within Centurion’s application, including:

"Centurion doesn’t own or operate any hospitals and doesn’t know how to.

Centurion knows that CharterCARE (Roger Williams Medical Center, Fatima Hospital and Prospect Home Health and Hospice) continues to lose money, which is unsustainable. But Centurion is not going to make any financial commitments to CharterCARE facilities.

Centurion is not putting up any of their own money in this sale. Instead, they expect these community hospitals and healthcare facilities to borrow more than $133 million to stay afloat. Centurion is not on the hook to pay this money back. CharterCARE facilities will have to pay it back with money they don’t have. Since these hospitals operate at a loss, there are no revenues to pay this debt down. 

According to Centurion, these community hospitals and healthcare facilities are supposed to survive by finding cost-savings and new revenue, which they haven’t been able to do for decades now.

At the same time that Centurion refuses to invest any money in these healthcare facilities, they insist on making CharterCARE’s hospitals and facilities pay them numerous fees and charges. Worse, Centurion refuses to tell us what the fees and charges are for, or how much they will be."

Callaci continued, “We are going to do all we can to secure the future of CharterCARE. But having an out-of-state corporation from Georgia come to Rhode Island to take advantage of us is not the answer. This company wants to make us borrow a ton of money we can’t pay back. This doesn’t get us anywhere. In fact, it makes our financial situation much worse than it already is.”

“Having an out-of-state corporation come to RI and take already scarce healthcare dollars away from us in the form of hidden fees and charges is the opposite of what we need to provide quality care," Lynn Blais, R.N., President of UNAP and a registered nurse at Fatima Hospital. "Coming on the heels of Prospect’s disastrous ownership of these important community hospitals and healthcare facilities, it is imperative that the next owner is willing to put healthcare first and be a true community partner – someone who is willing to invest in the patients, the workforce, the hospitals and our community. Based on this application, Centurion clearly does not fit that bill.”


History of Financial Failure of CharterCARE Hospitals

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