Group eyes Partners expansion

LYNN – Advocates for Union Hospital are gearing up for a “Stand-Out” on the steps of Suffolk Superior Court Monday when a hearing will discuss whether a settlement between Attorney General Martha Coakley and Partners HealthCare will be approved.”A few of us will be going in to hold signs,” said Katerina Panagiotakis Koudanis. “We hope to draw some attention to the issue that this document will impact lives on every level.”The settlement focuses on Partners’ bid to take over South Shore Hospital and Hallmark Health Corporation in Melrose. If approved, the settlement would allow Partners to complete its acquisition of three more community hospitals but would also put a seven-year freeze on additional takeovers.Koudanis believes if Partners is prevented from expanding, then Salem Hospital would be prevented from absorbing Union Hospital’s critical services.”Our battle might be relieved here,” she said.”I would like to see limits on Partners’ expansion abilities so they could not expand anymore in Massachusetts,” she added. “I would like to see more competition in health care. Our health care choices are being dissolved.”She is not the only one to raise a concern over the lack of competition.When the settlement was filed in June, it opened a period of public comment that ended Sept. 15. Among the more than 125 was state Rep. Donald Wong, who wrote he is concerned that Partners has already consolidated health care on the South Shore and is now trying to do the same on the North Shore.He also said that he is personally concerned for the quality of life and safety of the residents in his district because Union is the only full-service hospital left in a city with a population of 92,000. He added that it would also affect the 26,000 residents in neighboring Saugus who also use the hospital.Kernwood Drive resident Dale Orlando told the judge in his comment that some residents in Lynn were considering trying to take the hospital by eminent domain because no one appears to be looking out for “our interests in negotiating this deal and allowed Partners to both increase their monopoly on health care north of Boston and to run up the prices for much of that care. As a citizen and a taxpayer I am appalled.”Susan Reddy, who lives near Union, said she finds it incomprehensible that anyone would think to give Partners more power.In his three-page comment, Judge Road resident Michael Toomey pointed out that “the fate of Union Hospital is directly tied to Partners’ acquisition of Hallmark Health Corporation,” and asked that the settlement be disallowed. On behalf of the Saugus Board of Selectmen, clerk Wendy Reed also voiced concern over limiting health care opportunities.Not all comments were negative, however.In her letter of support, Lynn Community Health Center Executive Director Lori Abrams Berry said it would be difficult to see medical services leave the city, but she believes Partners’ plans for Union and Salem Hospitals are a positive step forward. She also noted that the health center and Partners share a large patient population and have worked well collaboratively for many years.Other prominent names on the list of commenters include Robert Kraft, of the Kraft Group and owner of the New England Patriots, who supports Partners and has even formed an alliance with the health care company to open the Kraft Center for Community Health.Koudanis is ready for Monday’s hearing, but if the outcome doesn’t go her way, she said she is also ready for the bigger battle when Partners files its Determination of Need. The DON hearings with the state could pave the way for the changes at Union and Salem hospitals. That is where Koudanis and the Union advocate group have made sure, by filing for a 10-taxpayer group status, they will have a seat at the table.”And I can’t wait to get into it,” she said.