Rex Healthcare executives are enlisting the help of employees, physicians and patients as they try to fend off WakeMed's unsolicited offer to buy their hospital for $750 million.
In an email to doctors, Rex CEO David Strong urged them to tell patients who ask that they can support Rex by writing letters to the editor, and posting their views on personal blogs and social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.
Also, "patients can email, write or call their legislators ... and explain that a takeover of Rex Healthcare would have significant negative consequences for our county and state," Strong wrote. The email also includes contact information for the Wake County delegation of the General Assembly.
"We believe any acquisition of Rex Healthcare would require legislation or some similar type of involvement from the state," Strong wrote.
WakeMed announced last week it is offering $750 million to buy Raleigh rival Rex from the UNC Health Care System. Rex and UNC officials have said that Rex isn't for sale, but the UNC Health board is meeting this afternoon to discuss the offer.
WakeMed officials argue that the money could help alleviate the state's financial deficit, either by providing a cash infusion for the UNC system or the state coffers. In proposing the hostile takeover, WakeMed also is seeking to stop aggressive expansion efforts by UNC Health in its home turf of Wake County.
Rex "isn't telling anyone what to say" but has had many inquiries from patients, staff and doctors about how they can help the hospital oppose a sale, said spokeswoman Lisa Schiller.
"People are generally not in favor" of a Rex sale, she added. "It's too early to tell if it will help, but it certainly can't hurt to have people speak what's on their minds."
Rep. Paul Stam, a Republican from Apex, and Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat from Raleigh, said they're hearing from constituents on both sides of the issue.
Ross said she's gotten several dozen emails and a few phone calls, but hasn't decided whether she supports WakeMed or UNC-Rex, or whether the legislature should really get involved at all.
"They really need to work things out, and [legislators] are taking a wait-and-see approach," Ross said. "No one has brought a specific proposal to the legislature. No one really knows what's being proposed for real."
WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson met with several state lawmakers last week to give them a head's up about the Rex bid. WakeMed also is using its lobbyists, including former Raleigh Republican Mayor Tom Fetzer, to make its case with elected officials in the General Assembly.
The N.C. Medical Society board also met over the weekend to discuss the situation, but doesn't plan on picking sides, said CEO Robert Seligson.
"We want to make sure it's what's best for Wake County in the long term, and not just short-term health policy," he said. "We want to make sure it doesn't disrupt health care."
But the Medical Society, which represents about 11,000 physicians across the state, also doesn't want to see the state start selling assets simply to cover its deficit, Seligson said. "Will we sell Jordan Lake next? Is that good fiscal policy in the General Assembly?"
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or
Comments
Rex Hospital being acquired.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 00:50 — RoroCAI honestly do not get this one bit. Our healthcare system is in no man's land. It is not compettitive enough and on the hand it is not socialized. We are today at the mercy of these giant instittutions.
We need competition. If we want to lower prices, force more competition. Quit limiting the number of beds in our county. Without competition prices will keep going up.
This acquisition proposal confirms to me that the hospitals are making money. If it was such a money losing operation, who would want to own more.
If we do not do something to change the costs in the health care system, nobody will be able to pay for it in a very few short years.
Why should WakeMed be forced
Mon, 05/16/2011 - 22:30 — JoeTarheelWhy should WakeMed be forced to compete with a state-funded hospital in UNC-Rex.
You cite 'monopoly' but how is this not a monopoly? WakeMed accepts 'all patients' as they are required by law. Somehow Rex gets out of taking their fair share and they get propped up by UNC (ie: state taxpayers). How is this competitive?
Republican Crony Capitalism at it's Lowest
Mon, 05/16/2011 - 19:05 — FauxNewsA WakeMed buyout of Rex would move WakeMed dangerously close to a hospital monopoly in the Raleigh metropolitan area, and they're counting on their Republican lobbyist army to make it happen.
Such a merger would be a disaster for the health care free market in this area, driving outragious hospital prices into the stratosphere and jeopardizing the ability of middle-class citizens of Wake County to get the high-quality health care they deserve.
This is yet more proof dispelling the myth that Republicans are somehow good for free markets, consumers, or capitalism in general. They have prostituted their political services out to mega-corporations and the ultra-rich to the great harm of our nation's middle class, and rely on propoganda outlets like Faux News and Rush Limbaugh to keep their rank-and-file followers none the wiser.
This is exactly why corrupt Republican leadership is so unbelievably dangerous, both for our state and our country as a whole.
Sadly, this Republican corruption, as damaging and despicable as it may be, is only the beginning. Republicans in our state legislature and in Congress are selling our nation's government off to the highest bidder. Let's hope we see a smarter group of Americans show up at the polls in 2012 than what appeared in 2010, now that they know what's truly at stake.
I don't know what is best
Mon, 05/16/2011 - 16:56 — raleighsteeler1I don't know what is best overall for patients in Wake County, but I do know the following.
Rex historically made it known that certain groups of people were not welcome to receive care there. Additionally up until recently, the access to Spanish interpreters was limited. There are also countless stories of patient dumping (patient comes to their ER, and receives definitive treatment elsewhere because of insurance). This practice I hear less of at Rex because it is completely illegal. WakeMed has consistantly made decisions to expand care to all patients in Wake county, and doesn't turn patients away, unless it can't provide the proper service. That expensive WakeMed helicopter is often transporting a trauma victim with no insurance. Comments that WakeMed only cares about the bottom line are completely baseless.
So those that write about the superiority of Rex, know that they are superior at providing care to more well insured and healthier patients. And know the healthcare workers at WakeMed care every bit as much as they do at Rex.