AG's office unlikely to get involved in St. Vincent merger

Sue Vorenberg | The New Mexican

2/1/2008 - 2/2/08

There's no legal reason Attorney General Gary King could use to see the paperwork that will seal the controversial deal to merge St. Vincent Regional Medical Center with Christus Health, King said.

The agreement, which will make the Catholic Christus Health a 50 percent partner in Santa Fe's only general service hospital, likely will be signed early this month, but it is still in due diligence, said Arturo Delgado, a spokesman for St. Vincent.

Critics have voiced concerns that the deal will subject Northern New Mexicans to Catholic mandates about right-to-die issues and birth control, among other things.

St. Vincent and Christus plan to set up a separate entity that they say will let them get around any conflicts, and have discussed the issues at several public meetings, but they refuse to release the actual document they will sign to the public or the media, Delgado said. "We don't anticipate that that will change," he said.

Still, the partners have discussed some of the legal implications of the merger with King, who said they appear to be negotiating with community issues in mind.

"Right now, we're comfortable that the practices are not going to change at the hospital in any major way," he said.

But King also hasn't seen any of the paperwork, and likely won't, he told The New Mexican on Friday.

"The agreements themselves wouldn't have to be filed with us," he said, adding that nonprofits like St. Vincent and Christus have to register with the Attorney General's Office but don't have to give any detailed information such as might be in their partnership agreement.

There's not much he can do unless laws are broken after the agreement is signed, King said.

"My basic understanding is that the parties right now don't feel like there's anything in the operating agreement that will run afoul of our state laws," he said. "But the AG's office could get involved if they did anything that ran afoul of state law."

If problems arise, King said, he thought that the Public Regulation Commission's corporation division could get involved; however, the agency didn't return calls from The New Mexican on Friday requesting more information.

Another avenue of possible intervention could be based on anti-trust laws, since St. Vincent is the city's only general service hospital, King said, but that also would happen only after an agreement was signed.

In the meantime, he intends to stay in touch with the partners and monitor the situation, he said.

"We're certainly aware of the issues," King said. "We certainly want to make sure that health care in Northern New Mexico continues to provide a full variety of services."

Contact Sue Vorenberg at 986-3072 or svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.