The United Nurses and Allied Professionals has urged the Rhode Island attorney general and state department of health to reject the Centurion Foundation's plan to acquire two Providence, R.I., hospitals from Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings.
UNAP is a union that represents nearly 1,000 employees at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, Roger Williams Medical Center and Prospect Home Health and Hospice in Providence.
The union argues the business model is "not credible or viable" as Centurion, an Atlanta-based nonprofit, has never owned or operated a hospital or healthcare facility. UNAP also noted that Centurion will not be bringing any new capital to these facilities — at a time when that's what is needed most.
"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," UNAP General Counsel Chris Callaci said in a March 4 news release. "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 several concerns within the proposed acquisition, including:
- Centurion knows that CharterCare Health Partners (Roger Williams Medical Center, Fatima Hospital and Prospect Home Health and Hospice) continues to lose money, but has not made any financial commitments to those facilities, according to UNAP.
- Centurion is not putting up any of its own money in this sale and expects the hospitals and healthcare facilities to borrow more than $133 million to stay afloat. Since these community hospitals operate at a loss, there are no revenues to pay this debt down, UNAP said.
- UNAP also alleges that Centurion insists on making the hospitals and facilities pay it several fees and charges, but refuses to outline what the fees and charges are for, or how much they will be.
"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," Mr. Callaci said. "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."
UNAP President Lynn Blais, RN, a nurse at Fatima Hospital, called on state regulators to dismiss the application, arguing that the model does not work for patients, employees or the community.
"Coming on the heels of Prospects' 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," Ms. Blais said. "Based on this application, Centurion clearly does not fit that bill."
Becker's has reached out to Centurion and will update this story when more information becomes available.