New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella has negotiated terms for Dartmouth Health's proposed acquisition of Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont.
The proposed transaction, as originally filed, "risked substantially lessening competition and creating a monopoly for inpatient general acute care services in Sullivan County," the office of the state attorney general said in an April 1 news release.
The negotiated terms, based on an analysis of the anticipated loss of competition between the two entities, aim to alleviate the potential harm to healthcare consumers in the region.
Dartmouth is already the largest health system in New Hampshire anchored by its academic medical center in Lebanon. It also includes two community hospitals, three critical access hospitals and physician practices across the state. Valley Regional Hospital is a critical access facility serving patients in Sullivan County.
Dartmouth has agreed to certain commitments to protect competition and maintain and expand services in Claremont as part of its plan to acquire Valley Regional.
"Dartmouth will fund the remaining necessary capital to build a new medical office building at VRH, and it will fund and operate an addiction treatment center at the VRH campus for at least ten years," Mr. Formella said. "Dartmouth has also agreed to maintain essential services at VRH for at least 10 years. These and other commitments will protect competition and ensure patients can access essential healthcare closer to home."
Dartmouth has also agreed to various other terms in the proposed final judgment, including prohibitions on certain anticompetitive contracting terms and practices with commercial payers; protecting physicians and mid-level providers from restrictive covenants; developing a clinical services growth plan; and pay $2 million to the Health Care Consumer Protection Trust Fund, which will be used for the benefit of New Hampshire healthcare consumers.