The Rhode Island Department of Health and the Attorney General will conduct virtual public comment meetings on the proposed merger of the state’s largest health care systems, Lifespan and Care New England, on Thursday, January 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. and Wednesday, January 26 from 3 to 5 p.m.

The announcement was made last week as pursuant to Rhode Island’s Hospital Conversions Act, the Attorney General and RIDOH made the merger application public.

It is available on the RIAG web site: https://www.riag.ri.gov/about-our-office/divisions-and-units/civil-division/public-protection/healthcare and the RIDOH web site: https://health.ri.gov/programs/hospitalconversionsmerger/

The Lifespan/CNE application was deemed complete and accepted for review on November 16, 2021. Prior to being made public, the application and all attached documents were subject to a confidentiality review, which is required by the Hospital Conversions Act. As part of this review, Lifespan and CNE requested that documents or parts of documents they consider confidential be withheld from public disclosure. Those requests were reviewed by the Attorney General and anything deemed to be confidential, such as confidential business/propriety information and personally identifiable information, was redacted or withheld from this public disclosure. 

A complete list of all the documents submitted as part of the application – including documents deemed confidential and the reasons why. 

At this stage in the process, the Attorney General and RIDOH continue the review process, which involves requesting information from the transacting parties.

Under the HCA, the deadline for a decision approving, approving with conditions, or denying the transaction falls 120 days from the date of completeness. In this case, the deadline remains March 16, 2022.