Members of a review board meet Monday, March 31 to discuss whether to recommend the state approve Oregon Health & Science University’s controversial proposed absorption of Legacy Health.
If approved, the merged system would control five out of six hospitals in Multnomah County and seven out of 13 hospitals in the Portland area
The meeting marks an important new stage for the state’s review of the merger. Members of a community review board appointed by the Oregon Health Authority’s merger oversight office have been meeting to discuss the merger since last month. The 11 a.m. meeting Monday constitutes their first discussion of what to recommend.
The board recommendation is not the final step in the merger review, and the agency is continuing to accept public comment. The state “accepts public comments throughout the review period for every given transaction,” according to a state spokesperson, Amy Bacher.
In an earlier meeting of the board, OPB has reported that OHSU leaders largely avoided discussing the merger’s impact on health care costs, a major concern raised by opponents of the deal. Many of its questions for OHSU leaders focused on issues other than costs, such as asking for the university’s position on relations with providers and handling of charity care.
Gov. John Kitzhaber, a longtime national health care policy leader, opposes the deal, saying it would increase costs, and his concern has been echoed by a group of experts and consumer groups. Meanwhile, a coalition of nonprofits is raising concerns the merger would hurt efforts to address inequities, and some critics say the merger could hurt access to gender-affirming care.
However, leaders of OHSU and Legacy leaders and other supporters of the merger have been waging a public campaign arguing for the transaction, contending that the merged health care powerhouse would achieve efficiencies, address hospital overcrowding and improve care.
After obtaining a short-term commitment that unionized employees would be spared layoffs, unions representing Legacy’s employees have come out for the merger, saying leadership has promised to boost Legacy employee wages to match OHSU’s higher wage levels.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union is opposing the deal, and members of the health care community in Oregon are split on it.
The OHSU merger application stressed Legacy’s recent losses but also conceded that years of losses would follow the merger. It glossed over OHSU’s own financial challenges, did not address years of high-level management turmoil at OHSU or what its leaders say is a near-certainty of damaging cuts by the Trump administration.
Earlier this month an Oregon Health Authority spokesperson told The Lund Report that the merger review office’s six-month review of the merger is slated to end in June. A related transaction that also is sparking opposition, involving the Legacy Foundation, is slated to end in July, and also is undergoing a separate review.
OHSU leaders are taking advantage of a legal loophole that spares the merger from being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission, which seeks to preserve competition and keep health care costs down. In an interview, the ex-FTC lawyer used by the university repeatedly declined to address experts' analysis that if subjected to federal review, the transaction would far exceed the FTC’s standards used to prevent mergers from hurting consumers.
