WakeMed's top executive is warning leaders at the UNC Health Care System not to let public opinions sway their decision as they weigh his $750 million buyout offer for Rex Healthcare.

A UNC Health committee this week began a review of WakeMed's takeover bid for Rex by setting up a website to collect public comments on the proposed deal, which would combine Wake County's largest hospitals.

"This is a decision that has to get a hard look whether people like it not," WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson said in a phone interview.

"It's not difficult to find a lot of people to come down on any side of an issue," he added. "You don't want to dismiss those opinions, but you don't want to forget that this is a serious business transaction and not just an emotional issue."

Meanwhile, WakeMed also is urging doctors, patients and others to let UNC Health know that they support its offer to buy Rex, which was announced in early May. In e-mails and an online memo, WakeMed is asking people to share comments at the feedback website set up by UNC Health.

A committee set up by the UNC Health Care System to review WakeMed's $750 million, unsolicited bid to buy rival hospital Rex Healthcare is seeking public comments on the deal.

The committee, which met for the first time today in Chapel Hill, set up an online feedback form here.

"This is just one piece of a larger puzzle, but we felt it was important to hear from community members and patients that we serve," said UNC Health spokeswoman Jennifer James. The committee also will weigh factors in its review such as financial data, legal issues, quality of care and more.

UNC officials have said they aren't interested in selling Rex, which the system bought in 2000. But they are reviewing WakeMed's offer as part of their "fiduciary responsibility."

WakeMed has started a short advertising campaign to bolster support for its $750 million offer to buy rival hospital Rex Healthcare.

The print and radio ads, which will run for a week or so, are designed to answer some questions about why WakeMed made the offer, said spokeswoman Debbie Laughery.

"One way for us to get our side of the story out there is to put it in ads," she added. "We received questions and there are some misunderstandings."

The ads contend that combining Rex with WakeMed won't disrupt health care or limit choice, and will create a stronger, unified health system that's better able to focus on adding new services rather than duplicating existing care.

The UNC Health Care System has owned Rex since 2000. UNC officials have said they aren't interested in sale, but on Monday, the UNC Health board announced it has formed a committee to review WakeMed's offer over the next several weeks.

The UNC Health Care System's board announced this afternoon that it formed a committee to review WakeMed's offer to buy its Raleigh subsidiary Rex Healthcare for $750 million.

UNC Health officials reiterated that they aren't interested in selling Rex, but will review the hostile takeover bid "in accordance with our fiduciary responsibility."

The committee is expected to review WakeMed's proposal for several weeks and then make a recommendation to the full board. The committee includes D. Jordan Whichard, who will be chairman, as well as board members Lisa Fischbeck, Andrew Greganti, Dale Jenkins, James Speed and UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp.

"We strongly believe that Rex is an integral part of UNC Health Care," said UNC Health board chairman Richard Krasno, in a prepared statement.

Novant Health, a Winston-Salem hospital chain eager to expand into the Triangle, has suffered a setback in that effort.

Novant last year won permission from state regulators to build a surgery center in Holly Springs, its first major foothold in this region. But Raleigh hospitals WakeMed and Rex Healthcare appealed the decision, contending that Novant used inaccurate information in its application.

An administrative law judge recently agreed. The judge, Donald Overby, recommended that Novant's project should be denied, in part because Novant's "financial projections are not credible, reliable or reasonable."

He also determined that WakeMed's proposal to add operating rooms at its Cary campus was superior and should be approved.

WakeMed leaders are urging UNC officials to begin negotiations on their hostile $750 million bid to buy rival Raleigh hospital Rex Healthcare.

In a letter delivered Wednesday to UNC president Tom Ross, WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson and chairman Tom Oxholm wrote that they want to close the acquisition "on or before" Dec. 31.

"We think it could be done by the close of the year, assuming everyone wants it to happen and we put teams in place on both sides to make it happen," Atkinson said in a phone interview today.

"We hope the state of North Carolina and UNC will look at this in a timely and fair and serious manner," he added. "We have a very viable proposal and it could be a big plus to the state of North Carolina economically."

Still, a sale is far from certain.

UNC officials have made clear that while they will review WakeMed's offer, they're not interested in selling Rex, which is a foundation of the UNC Health Care System's expansion strategy in Wake County. Ross had recently requested more information from WakeMed, which made the unsolicited offer to buy Rex last month.

WakeMed faces a Friday deadline to provide more information about its $750 million offer to buy rival Raleigh hospital Rex Healthcare.

WakMed made its hostile takeover offer last month in a letter to Thomas Ross, president of the UNC system, which has owned Rex since 2000. But that offer included "insufficient information" to evaluate the proposal, Ross wrote in a recent letter responding to WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson.

Ross is seeking additional data, including how WakeMed will pay for the acquisition, the identity of a "reputable" investment bank advising WakeMed on the deal, commitments regarding retention of Rex employees, and how "such a transaction would comply with Federal anti-trust laws."

Ross wants more information by Friday. "If I receive no response by that date, I will assume the offer is not a serious one and will deem it withdrawn," he wrote.

WakeMed spokeswoman Heather Monackey said officials are working on a written response and expect to have it ready this week.

Person Memorial Hospital in Roxboro plans to become the second community hospital in North Carolina to affiliate with a joint venture formed by the Duke University Health System and LifePoint Hospitals.

Person Memorial's board announced this morning it is negotiating with Duke LifePoint Healthcare on a proposed acquisition. The hospital, which opened in 1950 and is licensed for 110 beds, is the latest small facility to seek safety in a larger health system.

The consolidation is being fueled in part by rising medical costs and the federal health overhaul. Smaller hospitals face tough challenges in paying for new technology and negotiating with health insurers in the new environment.

Duke's health system and others, including the UNC Health Care System, are looking to buy or partner with smaller hospitals to establish larger medical networks, improve care and create new efficiencies.

Two debt-rating analysts who follow bonds issued by WakeMed and Rex Healthcare say that they won't automatically reduce WakeMed's rating if the hospital borrows millions more to pay for its proposed $750 million purchase of Rex.

"As part of the acquisition, there will be certain economies of scale, certain efficiencies that get realized," said James LeBuhn, a Chicago-based analyst with Fitch Ratings. "We would take that into account vs. the increased debt load. There's a benefit to size and scale."

Since WakeMed announced its hostile takeover offer this month, critics have questioned whether the hospital can afford to pay that much money for Rex, plus assume Rex's $158 million in debt. UNC Health officials have said they're not interested in selling Rex, but will form a committee to consider a formal offer from WakeMed.

WakeMed officials, including Tom Oxholm, an accountant who took over as chairman this week, have said they will pay for Rex using a combination of more than $600 million in cash reserves as well as additional financing.

"That is a staggering amount of money," said Kevin Schulman, a health-care economist at Duke University. 

The state's largest health insurer is expanding its on-site hospital billing service to the Duke University Health System.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina started posting employees on location at Raleigh-based WakeMed in 2009 to work with physicians and billing departments. The goal to resolve claims questions faster and more efficiently.

The insurer previously expanded the program to the UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill and is in discussions about doing it at other hospitals. Adding Duke gives Blue Cross partnerships with the Triangle's three biggest hospital systems.