PROVIDENCE – Final, sealed bids for the financially troubled Landmark Medical Center and its affiliate, the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island, are to be delivered to R.I. Superior Court Judge Michael A. Silverstein by noon on Monday.
“At 1 p.m., the judge will unseal the bids and at 2 p.m., legal counsel for each bidder will be able to make a closing statement to the court,” said Bill Fischer, spokesman for Jonathan N. Savage, the court-appointed special master.
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A court decision on the hospital’s purchase could come as early as Friday, according to Preston W. Halperin, a partner in Shechtman Halperin Savage LLP, the law firm representing the special master.
The final bids are being prepared after two days of public evidentiary hearings conducted on April 14 and 15 in the R.I. Superior Court.
“The bidders all felt that it was a fair process,” Halperin said. “We got all of the considerations out in the open [so] the judge can make an informed decision.”
In terms of the potential outcome, Halperin said that Rhode Island was fortunate. “We have three bidders who are willing to take this hospital, which was on the brink of failure, [and] infuse tens of millions of dollars into the state.”
The four bidders include: Prime Healthcare Services of Ontario, Calif., Transition Healthcare Company of Franklin, Tenn., and RegionalCare Hospital Partners of Franklin, Tenn., for both Landmark and the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island, and HealthSouth of Birmingham, Ala., for just the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island.
The courtroom was filled at times with more than 40 observers, including Blue Cross & Blue Shield, the R.I. Department of Health, the R.I. Attorney General’s office, and the legal teams of the competing bidders.
During the process, bidders made changes in their numbers as new information emerged from their competition.
At the close of the hearings on April 15, Transition Healthcare offered to invest about $65 million during the next five years, RegionalCare offered up to $69 million and Prime Healthcare offered about $53 million for the same period.
The union representing nearly 600 employees of Landmark and the rehabilitation facility, Northern Rhode Island United Nurses & Allied Professionals, Local 5067, said it has accepted contract offers from Transition Healthcare and Prime HealthCare, but rejected a proposed new contract with RegionalCare.
The only major wrinkle in the proceedings was the arrival of a letter from R.I. Health Commissioner Christopher F. Koller to Judge Silverstein offering what were termed “principles, not as policy recommendations, but based on its assessment of the impact of this process on the commercial insurance market.”
In the letter, Koller said Landmark Medical Center “cannot be considered underpaid by major carriers relative to other Rhode Island hospitals which do not provide academic medical services.”
