Fort Myers, Fla.-based Lee Health is weighing its options and continuing discussions on going from a public to private nonprofit health system, ABC7 reported Jan. 24.
The system first announced discussions on returning to its private roots last September after it hired advisory firm Kaufman Hall to perform a comprehensive assessment and guide its decision.
Lee currently has safety-net status where it will provide patients care regardless of proper health insurance.
The health system is committed to retaining its safety-net status regardless of whether it goes private, Lawrence Antonucci, MD, president of Lee Health Hospital, told the publication.
"If you look across the country right now, about 50% of the hospital and health systems have the structure that we are contemplating looking at. We want to make sure that we can compete with other health systems to come through to the community and compete on even ground," Dr. Antonucci said.
Should Lee Health go private, the health system and Lee Health Hospital would be able to franchise in additional locations.
"We would have the ability to do more partnerships in joint ventures, mostly with physicians on surgery centers and imaging centers of things like that," Dr. Antonucci told ABC7.
The health system has public meetings open for people to voice opinions on the change and will hear the assessment results by the end of February, the publication said.
Becker's has reached out to Lee Health for comment and will update this story as more information becomes available.