A redacted version of the document that is a mandatory step in Union Health’s acquisition of Terre Haute Regional Hospital has been released by the state of Indiana.

The document, known as an Application for Certificate of Public Advantage, or COPA, was filed Sept. 14, 2023.

Through legislation passed in 2021 and 2022, the Indiana General Assembly established such a certificate pertaining to the merger of trauma hospitals within rural counties. It was geared specifically toward the hospitals in Vigo County. The application for a COPA to allow the acquisition of Terre Haute Regional by Union Health remains under review by the state, and the public may comment. To submit a comment, visit https://bit.ly/4aHigH5.

In the COPA document, submitted to the Indiana Department of Health jointly by Union and Regional, the hospitals make a case for Union’s acquisition of Regional.

“Given the uncoordinated health care services provided by Regional Hospital and Union Hospital, perhaps it should be no surprise that the health status of the residents of Vigo County and the other counties of the Wabash Valley Community is poor — and has been for years,” according to the executive summary of the COPA.

It notes that Wabash Valley counties have not done well in the annual University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute report regarding health outcomes and health factors on a county-by-county basis: Recent rankings were: Vigo County, 63rd out of Indiana’s 92 counties; Clay, 55 out of 92; Greene, 64 out of 92; Parke, 34 out of 92; Sullivan, 60 out of 92; and Vermillion, 66 out of 92.

The summary notes that the two providers began in November 2020 discussing how they might work together.

Union and Regional “ultimately decided that the most efficient and successful way to focus their resources on the health care needs of Vigo County and the other counties of the Wabash Valley” would be for Union to acquire Regional to create “Combined Clinical Platform that will operate as a single organized system of health care.”

On Sept. 12, 2023, Union and Regional entered into a purchase agreement.

The deal, discussed publicly the next day, is to include Regional’s related businesses, physician clinic operations and outpatient services.

The acquisition won’t close until sometime in 2024, Steve Holman, Unio-Health president and CEO, said at the time. The dollar amount of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Terre Haute Regional has 662 employees. Holman in September said every Regional employee “is going to have a position at the same or comparable pay.”

Union officials said Regional is to remain a hospital, although it may undergo a name change.

Terre Haute Regional Hospital is owned by HCA Healthcare, based in Nashville, Tenn., the largest for-profit health care chain in the nation.

Union is nonprofit, as will Regional be with the change. Union Health said Terre Haute Regional is to continue its operations with no intention of interruptions throughout the transition.
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