Raw Deal Mergers: Our Govenor Jumps In Too!

  With some hard questions!

In the prior post RAW DEAL [link] you found our NC State Treasurer Brad Briner, voicing severe doubts about the giveaway merger of WakeMed - a community owned, not-for-profit, tax exempt, cooperative hospital. Yeah, sounds a lot like a credit union!

✅ Commenter: "You're exaggerating again, that's just North Carolina politics!" 

✔ Funny that you should mention that, because the Governor's office just jumped into the fray with a few questions too!  Read entire letter here [link]. 

1. Why did WakeMed decide to seek a merger?
2.  What other financing or strategic options were considered? 
3. What guarantees has Atrium provided to ensure that WakeMed’s prices will not increase ?
4. Why did WakeMed agree to a governance structure that limits local control?
5.  What guarantees  ensure that WakeMed continues to devote more than 12 percent of revenue to indigent care?
6. Has WakeMed assured itself that it could not secure greater investment from Atrium or other potential partners? If so, how?

😎  Governor Josh Stein is a Democrat, State Treasurer Brad Briner is a Republican! And, just for the record neither is up for election until 2028! 

😎  Why shouldn't the leaders of our State be asking these reasonable questions about a merger that appears to diminish a billion dollar community asset - established, built, financed, and owned by local folks? 

✔ Who is the State suppose to protect? 

  The Board, the CEO,  "the System", the co-op ... or the citizens? 

N.C. State Treasurer Speaks Out Against Un-SAFE Merger: A Raw Deal!

 

 "It does not take my expertise to know this is a raw deal."                         NC State Treasurer - Brad Briner *

✅ "My objections to the merger are threefold:"  [read full text here]

1. North Carolina and other states have witnessed multiple transactions involving a merger and we see the same results over and over – either higher costs or lower quality of care – and in some cases, both. 
2. The intended benefit of this transaction in capital investment over many years and the creation of a number of jobs, will likely occur without this consolidation. 
3. The effective sales price is ZERO. A promise of new capital investments and jobs that will most-certainly be created anyway means that authorizing this
   consolidation is selling for no real upside - and a lot of downside.

 😎 SAFE to say this sounds very familiar, doesn't it? 

* Briner was born in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Harvard Business School.

  Yeah, but what does a State Treasurer know about finance? Just some nut, probably has a blog!