Before Prime Healthcare completes a proposed deal with Ascension Healthcare to purchase nine of its hospitals, including Ascension St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, and four of its post-acute and senior living facilities, representatives from Prime Healthcare and Ascension told patients and employees at a meeting hosted by the city of Evanston and State Rep. Robyn Gabel, an Evanston Democrat, on Tuesday that Prime would not close any Ascension facilities for the first three years.
Fred Ortega, Prime’s senior director of government relations, said Prime has never closed a hospital and is pledging to spend $250 million on upgrades to the existing hospitals in Illinois. Ortega told Ascension St. Francis Hospital employees they would remain employed when Prime finalizes the deal.
“We are not one of those private equity firms — We are not a private equity firm at all — that come in and just buy hospitals and take profits out of them in order to pay out shareholders,” Ortega said. “We have no shareholders that we are beholden to. We have one family trust that owns the hospital system.”
Ascension announced the sale of nine its hospital in July. They are:
- Ascension Holy Family in Des Plaines
- Ascension Mercy in Aurora
- Ascension Resurrection in Chicago near Park Ridge
- Ascension St. Francis in Evanston
- Ascension St. Joseph in Joliet
- Ascension St. Joseph in Elgin
- Ascension St. Mary in Kankakee
- Ascension St. Mary in Chicago
- Ascension St. Elizabeth in Chicago.
Other facilities involved in the sale include Fox Knoll Village in Aurora, Villa Franciscan Place in Joliet, Heritage Village and Heritage Lodge in Kankakee, and Resurrection Place in Park Ridge, all now operated by Ascension Living.
In Illinois, the purchase and sale of hospitals are presented to the Illinois Attorney General, according to Gabel. The Attorney General’s office can set stipulations that Prime must follow when the sale goes through, like keeping the hospitals and other healthcare facilities open.
Ortega said Prime adheres to the negotiations mandated by the attorney general for every state it operates in, with the typical length of time being five years.
A news release from Scott Barboza, Prime’s marketing and communications manager, said Prime will uphold the same healthcare services that Ascension has offered for three years, in agreement with the the Illinois Attorney General.
According to Ortega, Ascension St. Francis in Evanston and Ascension St. Mary in Kankakee will remain non-profit hospitals in Prime’s Healthcare Foundation. Currently, 14 of Prime’s 44 hospitals are in that branch, he said. The remaining Illinois facilities will switch over to a for-profit business model.
Ascension Healthcare provides its patients Charity Care, free or discounted medically necessary health care that hospitals offer to patients who cannot afford to pay for treatment, according to Ascension’s Senior Director of External Communications Olga Solares. Charity Care can also be applied to individuals who have healthcare, she said.
Ortega said Prime will keep the practice when it acquires the hospitals, and it will remain in place across all of the hospitals it will purchase in the deal, not just St. Francis in Evanston and St. Mary in Kankakee.
Because Ascension is a non-profit Catholic health system, birth control and abortion services are not available at its facilities. Ortega said while Prime will try to keep the identity of a Catholic hospital present at its Illinois facilities, it is a secular organization and won’t ban those services.
Ortega said Prime is in conversation with the Archdiocese of Chicago to keep the names of the hospitals the same. If the archdiocese were to withhold the naming rights of the hospitals because Prime offers reproductive health services, then the hospitals would undergo a name change.
Julie Mirostaw, Ascension’s chief advocacy officer, said the sale of Ascension’s hospitals to Prime came out of a need for Ascension to find a partner that could continue Ascension’s mission in serving its communities.
“We firmly believe this transfer of ownership preserves jobs and ensures needed healthcare access across Chicagoland, as well as investment in Illinois for the future,” Solares said in a post- town hall statement.
Currently, Prime has 44 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient locations in 14 states.
The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board has a public hearing scheduled for Oct. 29 for the hospital transaction, according to Barboza.
