FROM STAFF REPORTS
The Iredell County Board of Commissioners agreed on Tuesday to express its “strong support” for Community Health Systems Inc.’s sale of Davis Regional Medical Center and Lake Norman Regional Medical Center to Novant Health Inc.
The Federal Trade Commission announced in January that it was filing a lawsuit to block the sale on the grounds that the deal threatens to raise prices and reduce incentives to invest in quality and innovative care that would benefit patients.
Iredell commissioners discussed sending the letter supporting the sale during their pre-agenda meeting on Tuesday afternoon and then added it to the consent agenda during their regular meeting.
The letter, addressed to U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell, stressed that “access to high-quality healthcare is very important to both our growing community and to our ability to recruit and retain employers.”
Commissioners shared their concerns with Judge Bell about Community Health System’s decision to cease operating Davis Regional as a full-service hospital and also to reduce the level of some services at Lake Norman Regional.
“To learn that Novant is seeking to acquire those hospitals and bring them up to their high standards, which we know by reputation if not firsthand knowledge, was welcomed news,” commissioners wrote. “It is our view that this transaction will help ensure that the Lake Norman Regional and Davis hospitals not only stay open but improve the quality and expand the availability of services to our community.”
Only Vice Chairman Bert Connolly spoke on the matter during the regular meeting.
“This is very critical to our county,” Connolly said, expressing his frustration that the federal government is more concerned about blocking a sale between two private companies than it is about stopping the flow of undocumented immigrants across the Southern border.
“If they mess around and shut down Lake Norman, we’re going to have a big problem,” he added. “I hope somebody will wake up. We really need community support for this.”
The FTC’s move to block the sale came 11 months after the two healthcare companies agreed to the $320 million transaction.
Under the proposed deal, Novant would acquire Lake Norman Regional Medical Center in Mooresville, which is located 11 miles away from Novant’s Huntersville Medical Center. Additionally, Novant would acquire Davis Regional Medical Center, a behavioral health hospital in Statesville, and other assets, including a physician group of 24 physicians employed by Lake Norman Regional Medical Center, a majority interest in an endoscopy center in Mooresville, and an entity holding a North Carolina certificate of need to build an ambulatory surgery center in Mooresville.
The FTC alleges that the proposed deal would allow Novant to control nearly 65 percent of the market for inpatient general acute care services (GAC) in the Eastern Lake Norman area, which primarily includes Iredell County and northern Mecklenburg County. Inpatient GAC services include a broad range of essential medical, surgical, and diagnostic services that require an overnight hospital stay.
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♦ Read the FULL LETTER HERE
Davis was never a behavioral hospital only. That’s what they wanted to do with it before it closed. It had always been a full service hospital, including a behavioral floor.
Can someone please tell Bert Connolly border issues have absolutely nothing to do with the approval (or not) of the sale of Davis Hospital to Novant Health.
The only purpose for wasting the Board’s and citizenry’s time with a stupid, ill-informed comment like that is an attempt to distract from the real issues with political hot-button pushing idiocy. Perhaps he could spend his, the board’s, and our time more effectively by actually addressing and discounting the underlying reasons, if baseless, why the FTC seeks to block the sale. If he wants to talk about the border, maybe he should contact his Republican representative to ask why he and his fellow Republicans didn’t want to pass the very sound border bill sent to Congress by the Senate. If he really is concerned about the border, he should include a demand that that Rep insist it be brought to the House floor for a vote.
I’m assuming “Mary, Mary , Quite Contrary” is a Democrat. There are no quotas in breaking the law. Illegal is illegal , be it one or 10,000.
Let me see if I can simplify this for you with some softball questions. 1. What do quotas have to do with the sale of the Davis Hospital facility to Novant. 2. Why would you, or anyone, want to conflate these two issues? 3. If you (and Mr. Connolly) are so deeply concerned about the border that you want to tie it to a local issue, why didn’t you insist that the Speaker of the House bring the border bill, that would have addressed it, to the floor for a vote?
In closing, I’ll add just this one thing: failure to get the bill into law has worsened matters considerably as it contained funding for staffing at the impoundment centers that are now forced to release thousands of would-be immigrants that would have been housed until they were either accepted or turned away. Congrats to the Republicans in Congress for making things worse at the border so they can say how much worse those things are.
When the democrats can bring a border bill before Congress that doesn’t include more money for Ukraine, then perhaps they will bring it up for a vote. The American people are sick and tired of funding everything and everyone except our own citizens! Close the border and keep our tax dollars at home! It’s that simple. I also am in favor of Novant being allowed to complete the purchase of Davis and Lake Norman hospitals.
Sounds like 2 mules fighting over briars.
Thank you for your letter in support of maintaining these hospitals for the citizens of this county and adjoining counties. My 90-year-old aunt, who lives in Yadkin County, had come to Davis Hospital for years for treatment of osteoporosis (Yadkin County does not have a hospital). Now, in order for her to receive the treatment she needs, she must travel to Winston Salem which is more difficult for her. I hope the FTC recognizes that accessible health care is JUST as important as cost.
I don’t mind the idea of selling the two hospitals to improve service in our area because neither one has a good reputation for quality service and the parent company of LNRMC has actually had to pay fines of over $200 million to the federal government in 2018. The problem I have is that in my opinion Novant does not offer high quality care. I know people that have had difficult times at Novant getting quality healthcare. They are using nursing residents at the hospital. I don’t know that I saw any nurse with an RN on their name tag, but I could be wrong. Essentially, nursing residents are nurses in training, the kind of training they used to get as part of their RN degree. Atrium is buying and building hospitals all over the place. If they purchase those hospitals, that will greatly reduce the choices we have. May I suggest looking at hospital chains that do not have hospitals near here. That would improve health care without reducing choices which would encourage competition and striving for higher quality. Vidant Health and AdventHealth are two examples.
Will someone please respond with a list of the county commissioners names so we will know who NOT to vote for. I can’t believe they are not more supportive of the tremendous efforts Iredell Health System has put forth to help fill the void from the closure of Davis, especially since Iredell is a county owned hospital.