Potential Forum buyer meets again with leaders of 2 unions

By GRACE WYLER

gwyler@vindy.com

youngstown

Community Health Services, a potential buyer of Forum Health, met again with Forum’s unions Wednesday, but union officials said they want more information about the company and its plans for the bankrupt hospital system.

CHS, a major health-services provider based in Tennessee, emerged as the second prospective Forum bidder earlier this month but has not yet submitted an offer.

Ardent Health Services, also based in Tennessee, has offered to buy Forum for $69.8 million. The bankruptcy court has scheduled the sale for next Thursday.

CHS representatives have met several times in the last two weeks with leaders from Ohio Nurses Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. But officials said the company has not yet provided a written proposal or answered basic questions about how it would run Forum.

“We continue to ask questions of them and get very vague responses,” said Eric Williams, president of Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association/ONA, which represents registered nurses at Forum’s Northside Medical Center in Youngstown.

“It is very concerning,” he added.

CHS officials spent the majority of Wednesday’s meetings asking questions about the unions’ agreement with Ardent, which is confidential, union officials said.

“Basically, the time was spent trying to get us to disclose what was in the Ardent deal,” Williams said.

Ardent filed its confidential memorandums of understanding with Forum’s unions with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court before submitting its bid to buy Forum. An insurance company representing Forum’s creditors, MBIA, has sought access to the documents, claiming that the memorandums give Ardent an unfair advantage over other bidders.

Judge Kay Woods has granted MBIA limited access to the memorandums without information about wages and benefits.

In their meetings, CHS representatives told union officials that they would match Ardent’s proposal and asked the unions for details of their agreement.

“They have said that they are interested in entering an agreement that mirrors Ardent’s,” said Thomas Connelly, president of AFSCME Local 2026, which represents registered nurses at Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren. “We believe that they are trying to get us to reveal what is in the Ardent memorandum of understanding, and we don’t intend to disclose that.”

In other action, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services filed an objection to the sale of Forum with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week. The objection states that, if the sale includes the transfer of Forum’s Medicare-provider agreements, the buyer also must assume Forum’s Medicare obligations, including overpayment debts, and honor the department’s right of recoupment.

The motion to sell Forum’s assets states that the Medicare-provider agreement can be transferred to Ardent “free and clear of all liens, claims, interests and encumbrances, which would include any Medicare liabilities.”

Judge Woods approved a motion this week to allow Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Western Reserve Care System to enter settlement agreements to pay back Medicare overpayment debts. She also approved a motion to expedite the hearing on the settlements, which will take place Aug. 10, the same day the sale of Forum is scheduled to be ruled upon.