PROVIDENCE – Legislation filed in the General Assembly that could determine the future of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospitals is scheduled to be taken up in committees this week.
On Tuesday the House Committee on Finance will hear legislation that would establish an $18 million reserve to support the sale of the hospitals to the Centurion Foundation, which has been attempting to line up financing to assume ownership of the facilities.
An identical Senate version is set to go before the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 5.
A transfer to state ownership was set for Jan. 30 but was stalled after a federal bankruptcy judge overseeing the Chapter 11 proceedings of the facilities' owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, approved a request by Attorney General Peter F. Neronha to extend that deadline to Feb. 27 to give Centurion Foundation more time to close the transaction.
Centurion has said it has verbal financing commitments that may enable a deal closure by that date and that Bank of America and the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp. are assisting in meeting the deadline, but state support to secure the bonds is crucial for attracting investors, they said.
The court also authorized the state to evaluate “alternative proposals” from new prospective buyers if Centurion is unable to finalize the deal.
The order by Judge Stacey G.C. Jernigan said that Neronha can continue to draw from the attorney general's hospital fund to cover up to $2.5 million in cash flow losses, bankruptcy costs and professional services and fees needed to run the hospitals through February.
As a backstop, the House Health and Human Services Committee will also hear a separate bill sponsored by Rep. Jacquelyn Baginski, D-Cranston, that would amend the Hospital Conversions Act to allow for a one-year expedited review of applications if Centurion doesn’t close the deal “and an alternative purchaser is identified.”
On Monday, Senate leadership spokesman Greg Pare said a hearing on the Senate version of Baginski’s bill has yet to be scheduled.
Asked if House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi or Senate President Valerie J. Lawson support either scenario as preferable or whether they would be open to additional funding beyond $18 million, Pare and House leadership spokesman Larry Berman referred to a joint statement the leaders issued last week. It said the hospitals were “critical to the communities they serve and to the broader health care landscape in Rhode Island” and, “The state is committed to working on solutions that promote the transfer of these hospitals to a purchaser who will keep them open and thriving.”
(Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You can contact him at Allen@PBN.com. PBN Staff Writer Jacquelyn Voghel contributed to this report. You can reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.)
