Unionized health care workers who just weeks ago voiced fear and distrust about the proposed merger of Lifespan and Care New England now say they fully support a plan to combine Rhode Island’s two largest hospital systems.
The labor union support is a major milestone for the deal, which needs state and federal regulatory approval. State regulators have to rule on the plan by March 16.
If approved, the merged company would control about 80% of the state’s health care market, which has raised concerns the deal would create a monopoly that could seek to cut costs by consolidating services and leveraging its market power to raise prices.
But union leaders are now downplaying those concerns. And they said the alternative to a merger of the state’s two largest nonprofit hospital systems could be far worse.
“Fears of a monopoly are overstated,’’ Trish Criner, a nurse at Kent Hospital and president of United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) Local 5008, said Thursday evening via Zoom during the third and final public hearing on the hospital deal. The state’s insurance regulators set rates, Criner said, and the merged company will be represented by a union of more than 10,000 health care workers which is “more than capable of advocating for their members and making sure they are treated fairly.”
Helene Macedo, executive vice president of UNAP, said that “if this merger does not go through, Care New England will almost certainly fall into the hands of a for-profit chain.’’
Rhode Island’s third-largest hospital group, CharterCARE Health Partners, which operates Our Lady of Fatima Hospital and Roger Williams Medical Center, is owned by the for-profit hospital chain, Prospect Medical Holdings, based in Los Angeles.
Fatima and Roger Williams were in financial trouble for years when Prospect acquired them in 2014. The private equity owners of Prospect later extracted hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for itself and investors while loading up the company with debt, according to a 2020 investigation by ProPublica. In 2021, the equity investors increased their holdings and became full owners of Fatima and Roger Williams.
When Lifespan and Care New England announced plans to restart merger talks in September 2020, six months into the pandemic, Care New England was reporting mounting financial losses. But tens of millions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief funding enabled Care New England and Lifespan to finish the 2021-21 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, in the black.
Lifespan and Care New England officials have said repeatedly that the merger will not only improve their financial stability but also create a more integrated local health care system with expanded opportunities for research and better coordination of patient care. If the merger is approved, the hospitals plan to partner with Brown University to create the state’s first academic medical center.
Support for the merger from a coalition of labor unions follows an agreement negotiated with hospital leaders during the past couple of weeks. The coalition includes the two major unions representing health care employees in the state: UNAP and the Services Employees International Union Local District (SEIU) 1199 New England.
The agreement includes a union seat on the new board of directors of the joint company; assumption of all collective bargaining agreements; protections against layoffs; union representation at any new facilities that are opened; opportunities for employees to work either Lifespan or Care New England and a commitment to developing a plan to address the staffing shortage and improve workplace diversity, SEIU 1199 and UNAP spokespeople confirmed in emails Friday. No timeframe for the agreements was provided.
During public hearings over the last three weeks, health care workers, doctors outside the two hospital networks and members of the public, among others, have voiced skepticism about the benefits of the proposed merger.
Dana Ciolfi, a medical technologist and microbiologist at Women & Infants Hospital, said she remains unconvinced. “What assurances do we have now,’’ she said at the hearing Thursday, “that we will be able to maintain our fair competitive wages, excellent benefits and job security beyond current contracts?’’
Health reporter Lynn Arditi can be reached at larditi@thepublicsradio.org. Follow her on Twitter @LynnArditi
