HOBOKEN – As the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority continues to negotiate to sell the hospital to HUMC Holdco LLC, a group that has common ownership with Bayonne Medical Center, one bidder not chosen for the exclusive negotiation is speaking publicly about the matter.
Paradigm Physician Partners LLC (P3), a Fairfield, Conn.-based company, said in a statement that they are prepared to acquire HUMC for $77 million. The city is attempting to sell the hospital to extinguish a $52 million bond backed by the taxpayers after the city took ownership in 2007.
“The Fairfield, Conn. company wants to inform the HUMC community, its patients and employees that P3 is still prepared to purchase HUMC for $52 million and invest an additional $25 million in operational upgrades in patient care and services,” according to the statement.
The Hospital Authority signed a letter of intent to begin exclusive negotiations with HUMC Holdco LLC in January.
Bayonne Medical Center took a hard line against insurance providers when the new owners took over in 2007, cancelling contracts. While the move proved profitable for a hospital that had had financial problems, patients had to pay an “out of network” cost, and thus, some doctors and insurance companies discouraged them from going to BMC. P3 addressed these tactics in their released statement, saying they “see no reason to forsake HUMC’s 501(c)3 not-for-profit status.”
HUMC Holdco, the potential buyers, have said they have every intention to sit down with insurance providers to HUMC in order to negotiate fair contracts.
For more on the issue, look at an upcoming issue of The Hoboken Reporter and keep watching this space. — Ray Smith