From ActionNews17.com
LACOMBE — Two young health care companies continue to press forward in the hopes of becoming the new owners of the Louisiana Medical Center & Heart Hospital (LMCHH).
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| Louisiana Medical Center & Heart Hospital following completion of its expansion and renovation. (LMCHH website) |
Little has changed in the past three months as Progressive Acute Care, based in Mandeville, along with Nashville-based Transition Healthcare, remain committed to purchase the Louisiana hospital, the two CEO’s told The Slidell Independent last week.
MedCath Corporation, the parent-owner of the Lacombe facility, announced in March, 2010 that the hospital was on the block to be sold, as part of a decision the company made to sell any or all of its assets, that included 10 hospitals around the country.
By January, 2011, MedCath closed the deal on its fifth hospital, and in May of this year, MedCath announced two more hospitals — one in Arkansas and one in New Mexico — had signed contracts to sell.
MedCath further announced in May that the company was seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to be dissolved by selling all the remaining assets without stockholder approval.
As MedCath appears intent to liquidate its assets in the near future, Progressive CEO Dan Rissing and Transition CEO Tom Reardon confirmed this week they are still very interested in buying the Lacombe hospital.
“Our interest is still very strong and we are currently in discussions to find the proper financing to close the deal,” Rissing said. “Our first option for financing didn’t go as well as we had hoped, but this is a tough market right now.”
Rissing said some of the difficulty in coming to a deal for either company is the changing appraisal for LMCHH, considering the pending sale.
“The numbers for the hospital from six months ago are not nearly as good today,” he said. “That is one concern with the groups we are talking to who are considering backing this.”
Reardon said Transition is still “very interested to purchase the Lacombe hospital,” and confirmed the original offer still on the table from Transition to purchase more than one of the remaining MedCath assets, perhaps giving them an advantage in the negotiations.
Transition and Progressive are both young health care companies, although both groups have a wealth of experienced hospital management making up their leadership teams.
Transition purchased two hospitals in Illinois in 2008, renaming the facility MetroSouth and leading the way to a turnaround for the hospital that had previously announced it was closing.
Progressive also purchased its first hospitals within recent years, buying three Louisiana facilities in 2009.
“We believe the Lacombe hospital is a good opportunity with a great future,” Reardon said. “Our plan, as in Chicago with MetroSouth, is to change the base for the hospital by bringing in about 15 primary care physicians and allowing that to lead the growth.”
Reardon said the Lacombe hospital was a challenge financially since it started as a heart hospital.
“Starting as a specialty hospital made it difficult, but having a strong primary physician base is the key to making it successful,” he added.
Rissing and Reardon both said they believed a deal could potentially be secured within three months, although both also qualified that prediction by noting how much can change in that time, making no promise about how quickly, or for certain, the sale could be completed.
“From what we have seen, the Lacombe hospital has phenomenal physician talent and great folks working there,” Rissing said. “But the unknown future everyone is looking at now affects the mentality of what is happening there.”
MedCath CEO Ed French declined to comment on the Lacombe hospital until an agreement is reached.
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