In a disclosure that hinted that additional transactions, state well being care officers obtained notifications Tuesday in reference to the proposed sale of Stewardship Well being Inc. and the contracting Steward Well being Care Community to OptumCare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.
The workplace of Sen. Ed Markey issued a press launch that “Minnesota-based Optum Monetary has bought the doctor group of Steward Well being Care.”
Stewardship Well being Inc. is the father or mother of Stewardship Well being Medical Group Inc., which employs main care physicians and different clinicians throughout 9 states, in keeping with the Well being Coverage Fee.
“This can be a important proposed change involving two massive medical suppliers, each in Massachusetts and nationally, with essential implications for the supply and value of well being care throughout Massachusetts,” HPC Director David Seltz mentioned. “Particulars of the proposal will probably be reviewed by the HPC to look at potential impacts on well being care prices, high quality, entry, and fairness. The sale can’t be accomplished till after the HPC’s evaluate and any concurrent evaluate by state or federal antitrust authorities.”
As soon as all required info has been offered in regards to the sale, the HPC could have 30 days to evaluate potential impacts of the transaction, in keeping with the company. If the sale is anticipated to have a big influence on well being care prices and market functioning, the HPC can provoke a full Price and Market Affect Evaluate, an possibility that it has usually not pursued previously.
Steward’s monetary issues have obtained widespread consideration in current weeks and the outlook for its Massachusetts property stays cloudy. The HPC mentioned that transactions involving the sale of Steward’s eight Massachusetts hospitals would additionally require evaluate by the company, and evaluate by the Willpower of Want program on the Division of Public Well being.
“After Steward recklessly took on large debt that’s persevering with to … put hospitals in Massachusetts and throughout the nation into monetary disaster, the Massachusetts well being care system should transfer away from Steward’s monetary insecurity,” Democratic Sen. Ed Markey mentioned in an announcement. “With this announcement, Optum should show that it might probably meet the even higher duty to protect and shield well being care entry within the Commonwealth, and I hope they are going to stay as much as that duty by controlling prices and placing sufferers and suppliers first.”
In its new discover of fabric change, Steward Operations Holdings LLC, in response to a query about different materials modifications anticipated within the subsequent 12 months, wrote: “Steward anticipates offering Notices of Materials Change relating to transactions regarding sure of its acute care hospitals and different supplier operations within the subsequent 12 months.”