PBN: What is your take on the proposed merger of Lifespan and Care New England?
Swen: I don’t have any specific comments on that. I think there are a lot of economics driving consolidation in that business, which you see everywhere, there’s been a lot of consolidation in that business and tremendous competition, so I think there’s an awful lot going on in that area.
Could the merger bring more opportunities to the state?
It’s critical that we have a competitive health care environment, it’s also critical that we have a competitive product, and that the health care that is provided is of the highest quality. One of the things we want to make sure is that we don’t have a one-horse town, that we don’t have Lifespan, Care New England totally dominating the local environment. It’s important to have competition in that market.
Would the merger prevent that from happening?
I don’t know, I think it depends on how it’s done. I think it depends on what kinds of assumptions you make about what’s going to happen with the different care providers; there are opportunities for lots of competition in that marketplace. I think it’s something we need to be concerned about, (maintaining) a competitive environment, but I don’t think we know at this point. I don’t think you can say it’s going to be anti-competitive, or create more competition.
Have you heard anything about CBSI (Complete Business Solutions Inc., the IT company that bought out c.w.Costello) bringing more jobs to the state?
Nothing on the record.
Do you have any comment about what is happening with CytoTherapeutics?
About two years ago it traded at $16 per share. Now, it trades at 84 cents a share. What’s happened is not atypical for companies in that industry. It’s very difficult research to do, very high risk, very high reward, and some of the stocks in that sector have really been badly hurt, and they have been one of them. But they have a major corporate partner in the form of Astra, and they have some very exciting technologies. So there’s a lot of promise in Cytotherapeutics, and a lot of risk. And so the volatility of the stock is not that uncommon in that business.
We have heard rumors the Patriots may still be coming to Rhode Island. Is there anything you can say about that?
No. Again, I think the situation in Massachusetts is that the speaker of the House is opposed to any significant paid involvement in a stadium. I don’t think it looks very good there, but who knows?
Could Rhode Island still get the team?
I wouldn’t rule it out, but I wouldn’t count on it, either. But there’s probably no deal in New England that’s going to be as (promising) as the deal they could get someplace else. If they stay here, Hartford may make sense, they may look at Boston again, who knows, maybe New Hampshire or >Maine may be interested.
Why would other areas of the country be able to offer the team a better deal?
Because they tend to be larger communities, and, in the case of Houston, they (already) have a stadium. So there’s an advantage. Wherever they go they’re going to bring their payroll, and their payroll is 80 or a hundred million dollars a year — that’s a lot of money, that’s 10 or 15 million dollars in payroll taxes. Somebody’s going to want that.
