NORTH SMITHFIELD – The proposed sale of the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island to a for-profit company will be the first hospital “conversion” to be considered under a new review process created for the planned Lifespan-Care New England merger.
The application for the merger of the two health systems has yet to be submitted, but last Thursday, the R.I. Department of Health and R.I. Attorney General’s office announced that they had received an application to transfer ownership of the North Smithfield rehab facility.
The Rehab Hospital currently is owned by the Woonsocket-based Landmark Medical Center. Landmark, a nonprofit that has been struggling financially, announced late last summer that it wanted to sell a majority stake in the facility to St. Louis-based RehabCare Hospital Holdings LLC, a for-profit company that specializes in rehabilitative care. (READ MORE)
The two created a new legal entity, RHRI LLC, to facilitate the transfer of control; ultimately, Landmark would keep a 20-percent interest in the rehab hospital, with RehabCare controlling 80 percent. The facility, now licensed for 82 beds but operating at half its capacity due to changes in Medicare reimbursement rates, would continue to operate with only 41 beds.
The deal is subject to approval by Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch and Dr. David R. Gifford, the state health director. Under the new process created in preparation for the Lifespan deal, both officials use the same application and review the materials simultaneously.
The first step is to determine, within 30 days of last week’s filing, whether the application is complete. If it is not, the applicants will have 30 days to correct any deficiencies. Then officials will have 10 days to accept the application as complete or reject it.
The Health Department is specifically interested “in how this new entity will help meet Rhode Island’s rehab needs, address issues of charity care and specialty care, and utilize health information technology,” Gifford said in a statement.
Once the application is deemed complete, the review process begins and must be completed within 180 days. Officials will hold at least one public informational meeting during the review process. This is particularly important, Gifford and Lynch said in their statement, “given that the sale involves an out-of-state for-profit entity buying an in-state hospital.”
The Rehab Hospital provides inpatient and outpatient services including speech, occupational, and physical therapies and outpatient workers’ rehabilitation services.
The RehabCare conversion application can be viewed online at www.health.ri.gov.
For more information about the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island or its parent, Landmark Medical Center, visit www.RHRI.net or , respectively. To learn more about St. Louis-based RehabCare Hospital Holdings LLC, visit www.RehabCare.com.
In my opinion, there is something inherently wrong with for profit healthcare. Growth in the numbers of medically-uninsured Rhode Islanders continues unabated: from 2000 to 2005, the share of uninsured nearly doubled, from 6.2% to 11.8%, and is now estimated at between 105,000 and 110,000. While the numbers of uninsured are increasing, the major factors driving this in-crease remain the same: escalating medical costs, health care premiums growing at rates that exceed wages? growth, and declining employer-sponsored insurance. As the economy continues to deteriorate ? with growing increases in the costs of energy, food, housing, and health insurance ? in concert with increasing rates of obesity and chronic disease ? we can expect the numbers of the sick and uninsured to escalate. Our state?s economy is further weakened as our workforce loses coverage and access to timely healthcare, and suffers debilitating disease and untimely disability or death as a result.
So let's invite an organization in to make a profit? Sorry, I just don't get it.