A merger between a major Willamette Valley health system and a smaller one needs to be greenlit quickly, a group of Oregon lawmakers said this week, pushing regulators to grant an emergency approval that would bypass the normal review process.
In its quest to merge with Salem Health, which runs the largest hospital in Oregon, Santiam Hospital & Clinics has now told regulators it is on the brink of insolvency—and could go under unless the deal gets approved within days.
The small Santiam health system’s own audited financial statements indicate it has earned more than $10 million in profit each of the past two fiscal years, producing solid operating margins. Still, in a letter this week to the Oregon Health Authority, the lawmakers said they took the Santiam system’s claims of severe financial duress seriously…