Carle Foundation Hospital looks to merge with Carle Clinic

According to a press release from the Carle Foundation Hospital, the integration will improve the healthcare provided to individuals throughout the region. Carle Foundation and Carle Clinic have been working together on studies and research and expect the integration to provide unity and communication, according to the press release.

Carle Foundation is a non-profit organization and has offered to purchase Carle Clinic for $250 million making the clinic run as non-profit, according to the press release. The Clinic will follow all financial policies on the Carle Foundation if the integration is approved.

Bruce Wellman, president and CEO of Carle Clinic Association, said in the press release, "We believe this integration will improve all aspects of the patient care experience."

According the press release, with the intergration, the employees of Carle Clinic will become employees of The Carle Foundation.

In a press release on October 20th, the Champaign County Health Care Consumers (CCHCC) said it supported the merger. CCHCC is still seeking assurance on several issue with Carle, including management, community dialogue, community benefits, and obligations of Health Alliance.

On Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 10:00 a.m., Champaign County Health Care
Consumers (CCHCC) will attend the Certificate of Need Hearing, held by the
Illinois Health Facility Planning Board, on the issue of the Carle Clinic &
Carle Foundation Hospital merger.

As a community advocacy group, CCHCC is very supportive of the merger, while
also seeking formal assurances from Carle on outstanding issues. CCHCC
believes this merger could be the single best thing to happen to the
community to increase affordable access to health care because, as part of
the merger, Carle Clinic would become a non-profit physician group that
abides by the Carle Hospital financial assistance policies.

However, CCHCC is seeking assurances from Carle on several outstanding
issues, including policies guiding the new organization's management,
lifting the "no-service" bans on patients from Carle Clinic, a commitment to
ongoing community dialogue, community benefits, including payments-in-lieu
of property taxes, and obligations of Health Alliance insurance company,
which will remain a for-profit subsidiary of the new Carle organization.