Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 27, 1990 TAG: 9004270996
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: CHARLES HITE MEDICAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The decision removes the final obstacle to a process that started nearly three years ago, when the hospitals announced they intended to join in an effort to improve efficiency and hold down health care costs.
The two hospitals spent more than $2.5 million defending the merger after the Justice Department filed suit in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, claiming the merger violated federal antitrust laws.
Thomas Robertson, president of Carilion Health System, the parent company of Roanoke Memorial, said Thursday night that he was pleased with the decision and had been confident that the hospitals would prevail even if the case had gone to the Supreme Court. He said that even before the decision not to appeal, hospital officials had been moving ahead with plans on how to proceed with the merger.
Robertson said he wants to meet with the Community Hospital board as soon as possible and hopes to complete the legal paperwork for the merger by the end of May.
Community Hospital officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Early this year, Roanoke Memorial said it was moving ahead on a renovation and construction project that had been put on hold because of the merger litigation.
Robertson said at the time that the hospitals had let the government drag the merger process on long enough.
He said Thursday that officials have been meeting for about six weeks to plan the consolidation of maternity and children's services at Community. Robertson said pediatrics probably would be moved this fall, but it would take longer for obstetrical and nursery services to be relocated because that requires new construction at Community.
After U.S. District Judge James Turk ruled early last year that the merger would not violate antitrust laws and would promote lower health-care prices, the Justice Department appealed.
In late November, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Turk's ruling. The appeals court later turned down a Justice Department request to reconsider. That left an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court as the last avenue available.
The U.S. solicitor general decided Thursday not to pursue that route, said Fred Haynes, assistant chief of the Justice Department's professions and intellectual property division.
The Roanoke merger case attracted nationwide attention in the health-care industry because it was the first time the Justice Department had tried to block the merger of two non-profit hospitals.
Shortly after it filed suit in Roanoke, the Justice Department sued two non-profit hospitals in Rockford, Ill., that also were seeking to merge. The Justice Department prevailed in that suit at the district court and appeals court level.
Haynes said the Rockford hospitals have not decided whether to appeal to the Supreme Court.
by CNB