‘Teaser' letters sent to potential buyers as county hopes for deal by year's end

  Salespeople for the three public hospitals in Prince George's County are sending out letters to potential buyers in hopes of making a deal for the troubled medical system by year's end.

The letters to about 75 health care companies describing the three medical centers in Cheverly, Bowie and Laurel were announced Monday by the Prince George's County Hospital Authority, a group of state and county appointees who have overseen details of the deal since early summer.

"The teaser letter is really a marketing document: ‘Please come and see what we're all about,'" said Jim Callanan, a consultant the global firm Alvarez & Marsal hired to spearhead the sale. "We need to get a few in just willing to come and kick the tires."

Under the terms of the bid process, a potential purchaser would need to have a detailed offer on how they would run and grow the medical centers by December. Responding to concerns voiced by the ACLU and other groups last month, members said a potential buyer will be required to allow procedures such as abortion and other birth control at the hospitals after a takeover.

"We expect there to be a full range of reproductive health services," said Dr. Donald E. Wilson, who heads the authority's health advisory group. "In fact, we expect nothing less than what we already have."

Selling the hospitals is the latest proposed solution for the troubled county-owned centers, which have faced annual losses for years and lag behind nearby hospitals in technology and facilities.

Though the three centers collectively serve about 180,000 patients a year, nearly 25 percent of them are uninsured, leaving the hospital in the red. State and county officials have been at odds with hospital leaders for years over management decisions, approving temporary funding to keep the hospitals running. Recent studies have indicated it could take more than $200 million to settle debts and upgrade the centers.

State and county lawmakers agreed last spring to create the independent hospital authority to handle selling off the public hospitals. The group is supposed to bring a deal to the General Assembly for approval in the 2009 session that begins in January.

The sale is not expected to turn a profit. Instead, it will divest the county and state of responsibility for the system's annual operations. State and county officials have agreed to pay the new buyer $174 million over the first five years to help a healthcare company revitalize the aging centers.

The 75 teaser letters were sent to companies that are in the Washington, D.C.- area or have expressed interest in the county hospital system in the past. Callanan said responses to the first round of letters would be used to begin vetting buyers and hammering out a potential agreement – though he warned that the public won't know many of the details during the process.

"Every step will not be laid out in the newspaper," he told the authority. "No one would negotiate in that kind of atmosphere."

No interested buyers responded to the first round of letters that went out last week, though Callanan said he expects responses soon.

Callanan and authority members said that members will insist that a potential buyer provide the current level of service at the hospitals and honor existing agreements with the local labor union.

"We will consider their history of labor relations and the fact that there is a bargaining agreement" at the hospitals, said authority member Karen Johnson-Shaheed.

The hospital authority will meet Oct. 20 in Bowie to discuss its progress.

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