With a previously agreed-upon rescue plan for two financially troubled Rhode Island hospitals still in limbo, representatives for another buyer met with state regulators on Thursday.
At stake are Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence. Both have lost money for years. Other hospitals in Rhode Island and Massachusetts could be overwhelmed if they closed.
Officials with Prime Healthcare met Thursday with Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha and counterparts from the state Department of Health, said Neronha spokesman Tim Rondeau.
California-based Prime operates 51 hospitals, including Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket.
The Atlanta-based Centurion Foundation won approval from state regulators last year to buy the hospitals, but it has struggled for months to close its financing.
Rondeau said no agreement is in place between Prime and the hospitals’ current owner, Prospect Medical Holdings of California.
Meanwhile, the Centurion Foundation used a Nov. 14 letter to state officials to present two different and complex scenarios for closing its financing to acquire Roger Williams and Fatima.
In the letter to state officials, Centurion CEO Ben Mingle said the foundation is diligently pursuing both financing plans to try to close its financing as soon as possible.
In a Nov. 17 response to Mingle, Neronha wrote that if Centurion closes its financing and meets the state’s conditions, it will be able to complete its acquisition of the hospitals.
But Neronha said it’s unclear if Prospect Medical Holdings has agreed to part of Centurion’s financing plan: to fund ongoing losses through a previously established escrow account.
Prospect filed for bankruptcy in January. Due to ongoing losses at the Rhode Island hospitals, it went to court in October to ask that Roger Williams and Fatima close by Dec. 31 or be taken over by the state.
Neronha said the state cannot give Centurion the exclusivity it wants as it tries to complete its purchase of the hospitals. He said the foundation needs to decide which financing plan to pursue and if it chooses the second, to address the state’s concern about encumbering an escrow fund meant to help keep the hospitals operating.
