“Why Quincy matters to us in Cook County is that you want to make sure that it’s not the shape of things to come,” says Cook County Board Commissioner Bridget Gainer. While the battle in Quincy is taking place 300 miles away from Chicago, officials here are watching closely. In a written statement, Blessing CEO Maureen Kahn said the QMG project “jeopardizes our ability to provide accessible healthcare for an entire region.” QMG and Duly issued a joint statement saying they “remain focused on physician directed care delivery and transforming the health care experience for patients.” The approval came despite a warning by the board’s staff that the new hospital would poach business from existing hospitals in the area that had space for more patients.Īres, Blessing, Duly and QMG all declined interview requests. Yet the board rejected arguments similar to Blessing’s in 2017, when it approved a new Mercyhealth hospital in Crystal Lake. Among other reasons, the board said QMG’s proposed hospital would create “unnecessary duplication of service” in the area. However, the board has already indicated that it’s unlikely to approve the deal, issuing an intent-to-deny notice last May, which QMG has appealed. The board is expected to rule later this month on QMG’s application for a “certificate of need,” which would allow it to proceed with construction. In making its case to the board, QMG says the new hospital would provide more innovative care and services not currently offered in the area, and that more competition in the area would improve care quality and lower costs for patients. It also fears that QMG doctors who currently perform surgeries at Blessing will take those procedures and the revenue they generate to the new hospital. If QMG’s hospital is approved, Blessing says it will be at risk of losing nearly $15 million annually in federal funding given to isolated community hospitals. have closed since 2005, according to data from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Safety nets have suffered financially in recent years, particularly those operating in rural areas. That would worry hospitals like Blessing. “If the project were approved, you could say that it might show a receptiveness by this particular board for new hospital projects,” says health care attorney Daniel Lawler of Barnes & Thornburg, who represents hospitals but is not involved in the QMG case. Excluding that transaction, private-equity firms cut deals worth a total of $1.7 billion in Illinois last year, about the same as 2020’s total. Private-equity health care dealmaking surged to $35 billion in Illinois last year on the mega-buyout of hospital supplier Medline Industries. Private- equity activity in Illinois’ health care sector The ruling in the case could shed light on the review board’s willingness to allow private-equity-backed hospitals and others to move into markets already served by existing hospitals. The controversy in Quincy is another flashpoint in the increasingly contentious debate over the growing role of private-equity firms in health care. QMG attorney Tracey Klein fired back that “the sole goal of this distraction is to preserve Blessing Hospital’s position as a monopoly in its marketplace, to prevent new entrants from entering the market.” “The board should recognize this project for what it is, an attempt by a large, national private-equity company to set up a cherry-picking, profit-motivated, low acuity hospital in rural Illinois,” Blessing lawyer Anne Murphy said during a March 18 hearing. It is backed by Los Angeles-based private-equity firm Ares Management, a fact that Blessing highlights in its arguments to the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board. QMG, a physician group that joined forces with Downers Grove-based Duly Health & Care in December, responds that Blessing is looking to block competition in hospital services in the downstate community.ĭuly, a for-profit entity formerly called DuPage Medical Group, is the second-largest physician group in Illinois by 2021 revenue, according to Crain’s data. All rights reserved.Ī big Chicago-area doctor’s group and its private-equity backers are squaring off with a downstate hospital in a fight with potentially big implications for Illinois’ health care industry.īlessing Health System, a nonprofit three-hospital chain based in Quincy, opposes neighboring Quincy Medical Group’s plan to build a “small format” nonprofit hospital 2 miles from Blessing’s Quincy hospital, which is a so-called “safety-net” facility serving many Medicare and Medicaid patients.īlessing is urging Illinois hospital regulators to block QMG’s plan, arguing the proposed hospital would siphon off profitable surgeries and privately insured patients that keep Blessing afloat financially. Reprinted with permission from Crain’s Chicago Business.
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