LincolnHealth also votes to unify with MaineHealth
The LincolnHealth’s board of trustees has joined Franklin Community Health Network in adopting a proposal that would align all 10 of MaineHealth’s member organizations under a single board of trustees and a unified financial structure.
As reported in Mainebiz this week, FCHN’s board of trustees approved on Tuesday proceeding with the unification proposal that has been discussed for the past year by the health care system’s members and which is subject to a due diligence review by MaineHealth and its other member organizations.
“This decision gives us an opportunity to fully leverage the scale and expertise of MaineHealth,” Bill Logan, chairman of the LincolnHealth board of trustees, told the Lincoln County News.
The unification, which is scheduled to be implemented in January 2019, is expected to allow resources to flow more freely across the system to better support care in local communities, Logan told the newspaper.
The rationale for unification is based on current inequities resulting from each MaineHealth member generating the revenue necessary to pay for services in its particular community, which can vary widely for a number of reasons. That has created uneven financial performance and is threatening the ability of some community hospitals to deliver care.
Advocates of unification have acknowledged it means ceding aspects of local control to a single board of trustees.
In the end, Logan said, “Joining with the other members gives us an opportunity to provide great care here in our community in partnership with an excellent health care system.
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