MaineHealth takes consolidation discussion to communities
Officials at MaineHealth, Maine’s largest health network, are going on the road to discuss with communities throughout the state its proposed consolidation of member hospitals under one governing board.
Portland-based MaineHealth has member hospitals spread throughout 10 communities in the state.The proposed new organization would be overseen by one governing board, instead of the current system in which member hospitals identify spending priorities locally for later review by the MaineHealth board.
Member hospitals include: Maine Medical Center in Portland; Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook; Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington; LincolnHealth in Boothbay and Damariscotta; Pen Ba4 Medical Center in Rockport; Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford and Sanford, Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast; and Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway.
The Sun Journal reported that nine of MaineHealth's 10 hospital groups about have voted to keep exploring consolidation and to bring the proposal to their communities for discussion and that the 10th hospital member is based in New Hampshire and won't vote until July because of the regulatory process in that state.
The Boothbay Register reported the proposal under discussion would create a single, system-wide governing body for MaineHealth, but would also leave local boards in place.
“This idea deserves the attention and input from the communities we serve,” Bill Logan, chairman of the board of trustees at LincolnHealth, one of the members organizations, told the paper.
MaineHealth announced its proposal to combine budgetary functions of its member hospitals into a single $2 billion organization in December, saying it was a necessary evolution in the face of growing economic pressures. The Sun Journal reported that roughly half of MaineHealth’s hospitals lost money last year, adding that MaineHealth officials said a single governing system would enable them to respond better to rapid changes in health care, which have hit smaller rural hospitals particularly hard.
Andy Coburn, a rural health expert at the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Service, told the Bangor Daily News at the time of the December announcement that MaineHealth's big hurdle will be persuading its member hospitals to give up local control on spending decisions.
"People don't want to give up their ability to govern themselves," he said.
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