SJH employees fill out CCMH paperwork

by Brett Dunlap

PARKERSBURG - Employees at St. Joseph's Hospital are filling out employment paperwork with Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital to get the forms and accreditations under one entity before the hospitals consolidate their operations early in the new year.

A letter to St. Joseph's Hospital employees from J. Thomas Jones, president and CEO of West Virginia United Health System, and Mike King, president and CEO of Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital, said the purchase agreement with St. Joseph's owner Signature Hospital Corp. has been completed and approved by the boards and the financing was moving along.

Both men expected the hospitals will be consolidated by March 31, 2011.

Steps to consolidation will include Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital becoming affiliated with West Virginia United Health System; St. Joseph's Hospital will be acquired by WVUHS, and both hospitals will be consolidated under the CCMH legal and governance structure and operate as a subsidiary of WVUHS.

''In the meantime, the purchase agreement with Signature requires that all SJH employees, meeting CCMH screening criteria, will be offered employment by CCMH,'' the letter said. ''Within the next few days, you will receive a packet through direct mail to your home outlining the steps you must take in order to receive this offer.

''The timeline is very short to process all SJH employees.''

Greg Smith, marketing director for Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital, said the packets are to make sure the St. Joseph's employees' accreditations and qualifications are in line with what Camden-Clark requires. It allows Camden-Clark to get everyone's information up-to-date to be able to process payroll and benefit payments.

Camden-Clark will not be conducting new drug testing on employees as St. Joseph's Hospital has done the testing.

The only grounds St. Joseph's Hospital's employees' status would come into question would be if they were a former employee of Camden-Clark and were "released for cause'' from their employment, Smith said.

''In that instance, we will review each on a case-by-case basis,'' Smith said.

Complaints have surfaced about St. Joseph's employees having to apply for their old jobs.

Current CCMH employees are unaffected by this employment process and need do nothing, according to a letter from Jones and King to CCMH employees.

Officials hoped the consolidation of both facilities would be completed by the first of the year as the West Virginia Healthcare Authority was reviewing the Certificate of Need submitted by local officials. But an Ohio insurance company has requested a hearing with the West Virginia Healthcare Authority, which will delay action until after the beginning of the new year.

The Health Plan of the Upper Ohio Valley Inc., based in St. Clairsville, Ohio, requested affected party status in this matter. A hearing has not been set and is not expected to be set until after the first of the year.

Officials with The Health Plan contend the affiliation of both hospitals in Parkersburg will result in an anti-competitive situation and could increase hospital rates in the future.

Local hospital officials said The Health Plan does only around one percent of business locally.

Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of West Virginia's largest private health insurers, will not be opposing the proposed merger, said MSBCBS President Fred Earley.

''After significant discussions with our hospital partners in Parkersburg, we have reached an agreement that will protect the interests of our members into 2015 by ensuring that patients will realize benefits from the savings that are projected from the merger of the two facilities,'' Earley said.

''We view this as a distinctively positive outcome from the perspective of our members and for Parkersburg and the Mid-Ohio Valley generally, and we believe the Health Care Authority can deal expeditiously with this case.''

Mountain State provides or administers coverage for more than 540,000 members, and has nearly 900 employees at its headquarters in Parkersburg, and in Charleston, Wheeling and Weirton.