A contract that enticed a 150-member doctor group affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to Steward Health Care System continues to cause concern in Massachusetts.
According to the Boston Globe, the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals has asked the state's attorney general, Martha Coakley, to investigate Steward's contract with Whittier Independent Practice Association, based in Newburyport, Mass.
MCCH's executive director, Donald Thieme, told the Boston Globe that the organization is worried about Steward's increasing market power while community hospitals continue to struggle financially.
"Steward didn't need these [Whittier] physicians to make its business model work,'' Thieme told the Boston Globe. "So the question is whether what they're doing is in the best interest of the communities and whether they are playing by the ground rules.''
A Steward spokesperson responded in the Boston Globe's story, saying the healthcare system is not trying to damage community healthcare, it's trying to save it.
The Steward-Whittier contract was challenged last month by Beth Israel. As the Boston Globe reported in November, lawyers for Beth Israel questioned the terms of the contract, which the newspaper reported to be in the millions of dollars, saying that the contract terms may amount to illegal kickbacks. Steward responded by saying the contract terms are legal and that Beth Israel is bitter not just about the loss of the doctor group but Steward's business model.
[See also: Hospital group, health plan team to offer low-cost insurance to small businesses; Steward bulks up with hospital acquisitions; Steward Health looks to acquire troubled Rhode Island hospital.]
Steward Health Care System, created just over a year ago when New York private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management purchased the Caritas Christi Health Care system, has been aggressively acquiring hospitals in Massachusetts and the region and recently partnered with Tufts Health Plan, based in Massachusetts, to create a community hospital network health plan aimed at small businesses.
Follow HFN associate editor Stephanie Bouchard on Twitter @SBouchardHFN.