North Country Healthcare affiliates four critical access hospitals in New Hampshire
Hospitals to remain independent but will coordinate planning, administration, purchasing, HR, marketing, finance and contracting functions.
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Four hospitals in northern New Hampshire are affiliating administrative, finance, purchasing and other services in a new health system called North Country Healthcare.
New Board Chairman Mark Kelley said the affiliation may represent a first for the nation.
"I'm proud to be part of what might be the country's first affiliation of four independent critical access hospitals," said Kelley, who is also chairman of the Androscoggin Valley Hospital board.
[Also: Critical access hospitals losing money, but credit ratings safe over political support, Fitch says]
The new health system is expected to be up and running, and serving northern New Hampshire early in 2016, according to a statement from the North Country Hospitals Association.
On December 28, the New Hampshire Attorney General's Charitable Trusts Unit paved the way for North Country Healthcare when it approved the long-planned affiliation of Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin; Littleton Regional Healthcare; Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook; and Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster.
North Country Healthcare will coordinate the activities of the four hospitals in the areas of planning, administration, purchasing, human resources, marketing, finance and contracting, according to the association.
The new arrangement maintains the four independently governed North Country hospitals as critical access hospitals providing care in their local communities. The four hospitals retain their names, their individual boards of trustees, and control of their assets and charitable endowments, the association said.
On June 30, the hospitals entered into an affiliation agreement which is expected to be finalized next month. Pending ratification by the new board, Warren West, CEO of Littleton Healthcare, will be CEO of the new system and Russ Keene, CEO of Androscoggin Valley Hospital, will take over as president and CFO.
[Also: Medicare outpatients pay much more at critical access hospitals]
Common challenges among the four hospitals are the treatment of an older population as Medicare payments decrease, along with a drop in Medicaid reimbursement and the number of insured patients, according to the Union Leader in Manchester, New Hampshire.
The affiliation is being formed in the hope that the increased purchasing power and combination of resources will allow each hospital to eventually become profitable, the Union Leader said.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
