HEALTH CARE

Dartmouth Health, Catholic Medical Center deal falls apart after NH AG calls it unconstitutional

By Valley News

May 15 2022, 4:44 PM

Editor’s Note: This story by Nora Doyle-Burr first appeared in the Valley News on May 13.

LEBANON — Dartmouth Health and GraniteOne Health, which includes Manchester’s Catholic Medical Center, are abandoning plans to combine forces after the state Attorney General’s Office said the collaboration as proposed would violate the New Hampshire constitution. ... The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office released a report Friday objecting to the proposed combination.

In a statement, Attorney General John Formella said the combination would violate a clause in the state constitution that requires “free and fair competition in the trades and industries.” ... “Free, fair and robust competition is critical to providing employers and patients with options for lower cost and high quality health care services,” Formella said in a Friday news release. “Our state has experienced significant consolidation in health care over the past several years, and this transaction seeking to combine two of our top four largest systems is unacceptable without appropriate protections for consumers in place.”

Formella, the son of the late Nancy Formella, a former DH leader, cited concerns about the effect of the proposal on health care costs. Specifically, the report points to the likelihood that the combination would “adversely impact competition” for certain health care services in the Manchester area, in the southwest region of the state and for some services statewide. ... “Without remedies in place protecting the public from harm and ensuring the combined system delivers on the promised benefits, the transaction as proposed is not something that I can approve,” he said in the release.

{snip}