The New Hampshire attorney general's charitable trusts unit issued a report Sept. 20 objecting to Boston-based Partners HealthCare's plan to expand further into New Hampshire, according to the Boston Business Journal.
Partners' flagship Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announced in May 2018 that it planned to acquire Exeter (N.H.) Health Resources. Under the plan, Exeter would merge with Dover, N.H.-based Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, which Massachusetts General acquired in 2017, to form a new nonprofit system, according to the report.
The New Hampshire attorney general's charitable trusts unit said the proposed transaction would likely decrease competition and increase healthcare costs, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. The attorney general's antitrust division issued a notice of intent to halt the transaction, according to the Boston Business Journal.
"Our most important duty is to protect the public and we will not hesitate to use the enforcement tools available to us to do so," New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald said in a statement to the Boston Business Journal. "New Hampshire patients already pay some of the highest prices for health care in the country. Based on our investigation, we have concluded that this transaction implicates our laws protecting free and fair competition and therefore threatens even higher health care costs to be borne by New Hampshire consumers."
If Partners resolves concerns with the New Hampshire attorney general's antitrust division, it can resubmit its plan to the charitable trusts. Massachusetts General Hospital President Peter Slavin, MD, said the hospitals plan to resolve the concerns.
"We are optimistic that the parties can continue to have an open dialogue with the regulators or government officials about this important affiliation," Dr. Slavin told the Boston Business Journal. "We remain fully committed to seeing this transaction through and are confident that the Attorney General's Office will ultimately determine that our affiliation will pass antitrust review based on the thorough review that the expert economists have completed on this proposal."
Access the full Boston Business Journal article here.
Access the full New Hampshire Union Leader article here.
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