As of Tuesday night, BJC Medical Center became a privately owned company.
The long anticipated sale to Restoration Healthcare Commerce LLC closed Tuesday in the law offices of Balch & Bingham in Atlanta, pushed forward eight days by the passage of the federal health care overhaul legislation Sunday by the House of Representatives.
The BJC Medical Center Authority approved the purchase agreement in a hastily called meeting at noon Tuesday.
The original plan was to approve the agreement next Monday, March 29, and close the sale Wednesday, March 31, but the House passage of the health care overhaul changed everything.
According to Philip Sprinkle of Balch and Bingham, provisions of the legislation signed by President Barack Obama Tuesday morning suggested that physician-owned hospitals may no longer be permitted. By closing the sale Tuesday, the authority and Restoration essentially grandfathered BJC in as a physician-owned hospital.
To hold a called meeting without 24-hour notice, the authority had to invoke the “special circumstances” provision of the state open meetings act.
As of the closing, substantially all of the assets of BJC Medical Center are transferred to Restoration in exchange for $7.1 million. The authority will distribute that money among its creditors, paying off all accounts payable, loans, lines of credit and the bonds issued by Banks and Jackson counties.
“It’s been the overriding goal of this authority that the hospital and the nursing home that have been an essential part of this community for so long be maintained,” said Charles Blair, chairman. “Restoration has publicly and contractually agreed to maintain those facilities for our community.”
Restoration offered local physicians the opportunity to invest in the facility, a move Blair characterized as “thereby maximizing the long-term commitment of these physicians to our community.”
The House vote, and Obama’s signing of the bill into law, “may jeopardize Restoration’s current business plan,” Blair said. Restoration approached the authority Monday about moving the closing up to Tuesday to forestall that possibility.
The sale brings to an end the public ownership of the medical center started by concerned citizens in 1960. The medical center comprises a 90-bed hospital, 165-bed nursing home wellness center and specialty clinic that, in the past several years have operated at heavy and unsustainable losses.
