CMHC asks for delay on Parkview merger study

Central Maine Healthcare in Lewiston has asked state regulators for a one-year extension to draft a feasibility study in support of its bid to formally take over the Parkview Adventist Medical Center in Brunswick, which it has been affiliated with for many years.

The Sun Journal reported that CMHC requested the delay in order to complete a feasibility study looking at Parkview's services and forecasting the best use of the hospital. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which had been reviewing the certificate of need request filed by CMHC and Parkview last August, requested a feasibility study from the hospital in January. CMHC asked that its application be suspended in order to give it more time to complete that study.

CMHC has long provided financial support to the 55-bed Parkview. The proposal to complete a full merger has raised controversy for the Brunswick area, primarily with Mid Coast Hospital, which submitted a competing plan that state regulators ruled in October did not meet the criteria for a "certificate of need" review because the proposal involved a looser partnership with Parkview than a formal merger.

Mid Coast spokesman Steve Trockman told the Sun Journal that the state's request for more information from CMHC is not surprising, given the importance of the issue to the mid-coast region's economy and the general state of health care in Maine.