Well, BCBS isn’t the administrator of the state health plan anymore; it’s Aetna. But I see what you’re saying.
can anyone read the TBJ article as to why WakeMed is not considering UNCHealth’s offer which is 2.5 Times larger (& better) than atrium? I’m sure its some BS response from the CEO about ‘competition’…yet charlotte usa literally has only 2 hospitals but somehow 2 is OK there… I’m sure he glossed over the fact that atrium would control over 50% of Raleigh’s healthcare…which is somehow OK that over 1/2 of Wake County’s healthcare would be controlled by an out of town, effectively for-profit hospital chain…
Yep. Saying it will reduce competition and also that UNC is already prepared to invest $5B in the area and this will be fresh/additional powder infusion into the market from Atrium.
I don’t believe anyone wants a repeat of the Charlotte duopoly, and the incremental money from UNC notwithstanding I suspect there are concerns about diversions of MDs, advanced care practices, etc to Rex and Chapel Hill. Also, this is not just about hospitals. It’s also about the physician practices that have been bought up.
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https://businessnc.com/state-health-plan-cuts-deals-with-unc-novant-but-not-atrium/
This tells you all you need to know if this would be good for patients or Raleigh, in general.
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Opportunity to have your voice heard. The more vocal opposition is the more Wake County Commissioners have to say NO. At the very least you MUST let UNC Healths offer have a fair & OPEN hearing…unlike the dipshit WakeMed CEO.
I am curious as to how much they offered to pay him…that MUST be disclosed.
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https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article316882569.html
Folks need to show up. WTF would you not consider an offer that is $3 Billion more than a wanna-be Walmart chain hospital out of charlotte usa!!!
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Yeah I Mean like really the only reason I can think of is the Charlotte deal is better for the wake med execs in terms of future compensation and power. But that would never be the case right!…..
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Antitrust reviews have prevented a few other hospital mergers in similar circumstances (I.e., reducing three competitors to two). But the current admin seems to have suspended such reviews.
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This proposed deal does is Wake Commissioners do their job & vote NO.
Hopefully the pressure is building on the Wake Commissioners to kill this deal.
i know NC Blue Cross/Blue Shield opposes the deal & they are also a NC-Headquartered company & probably the largest insurer of North Carolinians.
2 30 Year executives leave…not for retirement…but for other jobs. Think they feel WakeMed will be ‘in control’ if the deal is approved??
It’s common in upper management of an organization being acquired to assume that you’ll be forced out unless explicit assurances are given to the contrary. Might as well start looking for a new job proactively. Apparently, everyone at WakeMed/Atrium expected the deal to have been done by now.
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which seems asinine on so many levels.
Its as if the CEO somehow thinks he can make decisions independent of taxpayers like WakeMed is some publicly traded company…which its definitely not. The fact he hid these conversations for 2 years is baffling. He’s trying to pretend its not a sale…its obviously a sale
& as a taxpayer IF i were to consider selling WakeMed to anyone…its going to be an open bidding process. Duke & UNC Health would certainly get an opportunity. This CEO just seems like a complete jackass who thinks he can do whatever he wants without answering to anyone.
Wake County taxpayers own WakeMed…not Donnie Boy.
Hopefully County Commissioners will kill this deal…& have him fired shortly after.
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Be careful about the terminology. Wake County taxpayers have never owned WakeMed. The original non-profit corporation, Wake County Hospital System Inc., was created in 1965 with no common stock. No one “owned” it. Control over the hospital was achieved by appointing directors to the board. The corporation entered into agreements with the County to finance and operate the hospital.
This continued until the mid-1990s when Wake County found itself unable to continue to fund the hospital. After a harangue led by Republican Gary Pendleton who was chair of the County Commission at the time, the hospital was reorganized into its current form. Under the terms of the 1997 transfer agreement that privatized the hospital, Wake County retained partial control by virtue of its appointments to the board (although the County doesn’t appoint the entire board) and certain rights to approve transactions such as the proposed Atrium deal..
As for the CEO, the WakeMed board had to have known what was going on. Ultimately the board, not the CEO personally, is responsible for what has happened.
Legally, it’s not a “sale”. The closest thing I can think of that has happened in the past was when Rex Hospital – which also saw no future as a standalone entity – allowed itself to be swallowed by UNC. Under the terms of the trust that had set up Rex to begin with, UNC paid into a new trust fund to benefit healthcare initiatives in the community.
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Thanks for the clarification. Helpful to better understand the structure.
Not sure if you saw this today…but it basically reinforces how this deal structure is a complete joke. WakeMed is now saying the “$2Billion” is basically coming out of WakeMed’s operations…soooooo Atrium is offering virtually nothing & we give up our locally headquartered hospital? WTF!!!
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article317100717.html?tbref=hp
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https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article317142212.html
Why is killing this stupid ass “deal” even a question any longer??!
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I’ve tried to keep an open mind on this, but after this revelation, I really cant see any up side to this merger. Time to end it.
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