Becker's Hospital Review

26 CFO / FINANCE CHS to cut ties with Oklahoma hospital By Ayla Ellison F ranklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems has entered into a definitive agreement to transfer the lease of AllianceHealth Sem- inole (Okla.) to SSM Health Oklahoma. Under the agreement, SSM Health would operate the hospital under the license of SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital-Shawnee (Okla.). The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. "Our team has a strong commitment to compassionate, quality care for our patients in the Seminole community and this will continue," Al- lianceHealth Seminole interim CEO Mike Ellis said in a March 9 news release. "SSM Health is a respected healthcare organization, and we look forward to being part of a smooth transition for our patients and employees." AllianceHealth Seminole is one of CHS' six hospitals in Oklahoma. The for-profit company has 84 hospitals across 16 states. n Boston hospitals lead effort to recoup debt from Kuwaiti government By Marissa Plescia A fter banding together and seeking help from Congress and the State Department, 45 hospitals were able to collect the $677 million that Kuwait owed to them for medical care, The Boston Globe reported March 8. The money was collected by the end of 2020 but was not publicly dis- closed until February, when Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Insti- tute posted its 2021 financial statements, according to the Globe. The hospitals have established relationships with Kuwait, which pro- vides universal healthcare and pays for its citizens to receive care in other countries. But by 2020, Kuwait's debt to U.S. hospitals stacked up. The hospitals banded together in June 2020, and Massachusetts hos- pitals led the repayment effort because they were owed about 25 per- cent of the debt. Dana-Farber was owed $20 million, and Mass General Brigham was owed $45 million, according to the Globe. Kuwait Ambassador Salem Al-Sabah told the Globe safeguards have been added to prevent future payment issues. "The State of Kuwait has had a temporary and unfortunate setback in 2018-2019 concerning the delayed transmittal of the owed payments," Mr. Sabah said. "That delay then was exclusively due to bureaucratic pro- cedures internal to the Ministries of Health and Finance in the State of Ku- wait. In 2020 this matter had been swiftly resolved and the Government of Kuwait paid all outstanding debts, notwithstanding extraordinary pres- sures imposed on the government by the COVID-19 pandemic." Dana-Farber CFO Michael Reney told the Globe the hospital is now requiring Kuwait to repay its debts within six to eight months. n Attorney general had 'great concerns' about Mission Health- HCA deal, internal document reveals By Marissa Plescia T he office of North Carolina Attorney Gener- al Josh Stein had "great concerns" about how Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare was chosen to purchase Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health System, according to a 2018 internal docu- ment obtained by Asheville Watchdog. "We have great concerns about how HCA was se- lected to be the entity that purchased Mission," the document states. "Further, we have concerns about how the negotiations for the APA unfolded aer the [letter of intent] was signed." e $1.5 billion deal closed in 2019. Since then, Mission Health has dealt with physician departures and complaints over a variety of issues, including billing and quality of care. e document claims that HCA was heavily fa- vored to begin with, largely because Mission Health's then-CEO Ronald Paulus and his adviser Philip Green, a friend of Mr. Paulus, had a previous business relationship with HCA that was not dis- closed to the Mission Health board. It also claims that Mission Health chose not to put out a request for other bids or hold an auction "with no outside advice other than Phil Green." e only other systems considered were Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health and Charlotte, N.C.- based Carolinas HealthCare System, now Atrium Health, according to Watchdog. "In the end, an outside observer could conclude that HCA rose to the top among a limited num- ber of bidders because the deck had been stacked in its favor from the beginning by Dr. Paulus and Mr. Green," the notes from a 2018 meeting between North Carolina Justice Department investigators and HCA representatives at the North Carolina at- torney general's office reveal. Because of its concerns about the deal, the attor- ney general's office requested the Mission Health board to revote, the attorney general's deputy chief of staff, Laura Brewer, told Watchdog. e board unanimously approved it the second time. n

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