The merger between the two largest hospital groups in Rhode Island — Lifespan and Care New England — is facing a growing list of challenges.
A top healthcare merger expert tells GoLocal that the challenges are both financial and regulatory and can only be overcome by the state of Rhode Island creating an entirely new regulatory agency.
Brent McDonald, an attorney and private equity at Juniper Advisory in Chicago, said “They need to be able to pass FTC [Federal Trade Commission] review or the state needs to create a COPA (certificate of public advantage).”
“The FTC has different triggers and concentration of market share of 40% to 50% would trigger the ‘second request’ tool,” said McDonald, who has 25 plus years in healthcare consulting.
The second request law forbids merging firms from consummating a transaction until the companies have substantially complied with the additional investigatory request. In some cases, it is a death knell. Read more.
