Mercy officials: Parent group’s merger talks won’t change plans to sell Portland hospital to for-profit chain
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Posted Oct. 18, 2012, at 1:07 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — Officials with the Portland-based Mercy Health Systems of Maine said Thursday talks of a merger between their parent group, Catholic Health East, and the Michigan-based Trinity Health will have no direct effect on the local hospital or its associated facilities.
The higher-level discussions also will not derail concurrent, but separate, negotiations between Mercy and the Massachusetts-based Steward Health Care, which could result in Mercy leaving Catholic Health East and joining the Boston for-profit hospital group.
Scott Share, spokesman for Pennsylvania-based Catholic Health East, said talks between his organization and Trinity Health to pin down the details of an official partnership may take as long as seven months. By that time, Mercy may no longer even be a part of the Catholic Health East, he admitted.
If it is, the southern Maine network of health care facilities would benefit from the best practices and lessons gleaned from what would become a new 82-hospital family ranging across 21 states.
Catholic Health East currently includes 35 hospitals.
Democrats Use Health Law to Assail Republicans
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON — A little-noticed provision of the new health care law is causing big headaches for some members of Congress in this year’s elections. And it is likely to cause even bigger headaches for lawmakers next year.
The provision, written into the law at the behest of a Republican senator, says members of Congress must get their health benefits through new insurance exchanges being established in every state.
Republicans have voted repeatedly to repeal the whole law. Now, in a barrage of television ads, Democrats are roasting those Republicans, saying they voted to give themselves “taxpayer-funded health care for life.”
The accuracy of the commercials, judged even by the loose standards that often apply to political advertising, is open to question.
Democrats say the commercials are accurate. Under the law, they say, members of Congress would be removed from the federal program that provides health insurance to most federal employees and retirees. Repealing the law, they say, would restore that coverage.
Republicans say that the attacks are unfounded, and that the Democrats are misrepresenting the effect of the law on coverage for retired members of Congress.
In any event, the criticism, if it sticks, could be politically damaging. Lawmakers of both parties have often said their goal is to provide all Americans with health insurance as good as what Congress has.
Stent Maker Posts Loss as Sales Decline
By REUTERS
The medical device maker Boston Scientific reported a quarterly loss on Thursday because of charges and lower sales in its two largest businesses. It warned of continued weakness in the fourth quarter, when sales usually have a seasonal increase.
The company lost market share in its crucial heart stent and heart defibrillator markets, which together make up 55 percent of its total sales. It also makes products used in cardiology, urology, gynecology and gastroenterology.
The company’s top executives said they were moving to broaden the business mix and improve results, but analysts were not convinced that the company was on the right track to reinvigorate its business.
The net loss was $725 million, or 52 cents a share, compared with a net profit of $142 million, or 9 cents a share, in the period a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, profit was 16 cents a share, compared with Wall Street estimates of 11 cents. Per-share figures were based on fewer outstanding shares after the company bought back about 46 million shares under a 2011 authorization.
Quarterly sales were $1.735 billion, down from $1.874 billion.
Boston Scientific lowered its 2012 sales outlook to a range of $7.168 billion to $7.243 billion, from $7.2 billion to $7.4 billion. The company now expects earnings of 63 to 66 cents a share, excluding items, compared with 62 to 68 cents previously.
Michael F. Mahoney, the president, who will become chief executive on Nov. 1, said in a telephone interview that he hoped to expand the company’s smaller businesses so it was less reliant on its cardiovascular and cardiac rhythm management businesses, which are affected by weak markets worldwide.
Steward, Partners hospitals reach deal on trauma care
Expanding ties between the state’s two largest medical care providers, fast-growing Steward Health Care System has struck a deal with Partners HealthCare System to send its most severely injured patients from emergency rooms at Steward’s 10 community hospitals to Partners-owned Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals in Boston.
Steward employees learned of the plan in a letter from Dr. Michael Callum, president of Steward Medical Group, which represents about 700 doctors employed by the for-profit hospital chain. Under the arrangement, Callum said, Partners physicians will help several Steward hospitals establish trauma centers to handle less critical cases.
The alliance could shift patients from competing Boston teaching hospitals such as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Medical Center, and Tufts Medical Center, which now accept some urgent care referrals from Steward. It also could put rival community hospitals at a competitive disadvantage if Steward builds up its own trauma centers. Such care, while not a big moneymaker, is considered a crucial measure of a hospital’s skills and competence.
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