The Director of the Charitable Trusts Unit, within the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office, is charged with reviewing transactions involving health care charitable trusts, including non-profit hospitals, to determine whether these transactions are in the best interest of the community. The Charitable Trusts Unit retained the Health Law & Policy team at Commonwealth Medicine, UMass Medical School, to perform a thorough, impartial review of the Hospital Corporation of America’s (HCA) proposed acquisition of Frisbie Memorial Hospital.
Experts at Commonwealth Medicine, including Katharine London, Kelly Love, and Jeremy Tourish prepared materials for a public hearing and developed profiles of Frisbie Memorial Hospital and the HCA Hospitals currently in New Hampshire (Parkland Medical Center and Portsmouth Regional Hospital). This information assisted the Charitable Trusts Unit in its evaluation of the potential effects on the cost, quality, and access to health care in the hospitals’ service areas. Based in part on this assessment, the Attorney General is not opposing the proposed transaction at this time.