WakeMed answers questions about Atrium merger but doesn’t plan to make changes
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Commissioners postponed merger vote for 90 days to allow public feedback.
- WakeMed says merger documents reviewed by commissioners will not change after pause.
- Atrium would invest $2 billion to update WakeMed facilities and expand hospitals.
Wake County commissioners decided earlier this month to wait 90 days before voting on WakeMed’s planned merger with Charlotte-based Atrium Health to “allow ample time for public feedback.”
But the public forums WakeMed finishes this week have been about answering people’s questions and concerns about the merger, rather than hearing why they might oppose it or collecting information that might lead to changes.
The documents Wake County commissioners are being asked to approve will not change when the 90-day pause is over, says Donald Gintzig, WakeMed’s president and CEO.
The final two of six forums WakeMed organized to answer questions about the merger will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Cary Hospital and Thursday at Chavis Heights Community Center in Raleigh. Gintzig said the forums are a chance to reassure people that WakeMed’s mission and local control won’t change and that it will continue to provide care regardless of people’s ability to pay.
“So you just start to explain that to folks and hopefully try to relieve their anxiety and concern about things they’ve heard or things they worry about,” he said in an interview after Tuesday’s forum at WakeMed North Hospital.
Gintzig begins each forum by describing why WakeMed wants to join the larger Atrium Health and how it would benefit. The audience, which numbered about 25 on Tuesday, then breaks into smaller groups, where people make a list of questions that Gintzig then answers.
Among the top concerns Tuesday was the merger’s effect on healthcare prices. Echoing State Treasurer Brad Briner, one group said a combined WakeMed-Atrium would have more power to raise prices, which will get passed on to insured patients through co-pays and deductibles.
Gintzig dismissed that concern by saying there are essentially five big insurance companies, all of them far larger than Atrium and WakeMed combined.
“It’s still going to be a negotiation,” he said. “You’re going to have to prove that you’re driving quality better and lowering costs and do those sorts of things.”
Another group asked whether the merged company would take over independent healthcare practices. Gintzig said he gets a call almost every month from some local practice looking to become part of WakeMed.
“What we don’t do is go out and acquire and track down. We answer the phone,” he said. “People want to come join us. And we’re not going to not answer the call, because it helps us deliver better care in this community.”
County decision determines whether merger goes forward
WakeMed is asking county commissioners to amend two documents: the agreement that transferred ownership of the hospital from the county to a nonprofit corporation in 1997 and the “articles of incorporation” for the nonprofit.
Among other things, that incorporating document gives the county power to fill 8 of the 14 seats on the WakeMed board. That will not change after the merger, but Atrium would choose the six other seats and be able to dismiss the Wake County board members under certain circumstances.
Changing those two documents is a necessary step in the merger, which then will need the blessing of the Federal Trade Commission. State Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office says he will also review the plan.
Gintzig stresses that WakeMed is financially sound and says joining Atrium has more to do with having the capital to grow and improve its facilities and programs in the future. Atrium says it would invest $2 billion in WakeMed, allowing it to update its main campus in Raleigh and expand hospitals in Cary and North Raleigh.
If county commissioners withhold their approval, Gintzig said, WakeMed would abide by their decision. He said the impact wouldn’t be felt right away, but it would be felt.
“It’s a pretty feisty organization. It’ll be all right,” he said. “It just won’t thrive as much. And that’s a shame.”
