Mountain States, Wellmont Health announce merger details

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) — Top administrators for rival health care providers Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System have announced plans to explore a merger.

Mountain States CEO Alan Levine said combining the two systems would create a $1.8 billion health care nonprofit and would benefit patients, employees and the communities they serve.

"We can do more together, and we will do more together than we ever could as separate systems," Levine said. "There's one thing I can promise our region . there are difficult decisions that lie ahead — there are difficult decisions that lie ahead for health systems all over the country — but these decisions are going to be made by people who call this place home and have to live with the consequences of the decisions that we make."

Media report the merger would put 19 hospitals and 15,000 employees in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee under the control of one organization.

Mountain States and Wellmont plan to iron out details of the merger over the next several months, and then it would need approval from both states and from antitrust regulators before it is finalized.

The proposal calls for Levine to serve as executive chairman of the board of directors and Wellmont CEO Bart Hove to serve as the CEO of the new company.

"We know this announcement will spark many questions and a thirst for details," Hove said. "While the agreement to explore the merger provides a broad framework, there is still much to determine about how a new system would look and much planning to be done."

Two new members would be added to a combined board in addition to the president of East Tennessee State University serving as a nonvoting board member.

ETSU President Brian Noland said a merger would help the school compete for federal grants to improve the delivery of care.

"We will partner with the new system to strengthen the pipeline of physicians and health professionals, and to attract new research jobs," Noland said. "ETSU will also partner to conduct a health needs assessment of the area, to identify gaps and help with health disparities."

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