Attorney general seeks to delay hospital valuation report

The Ohio Attorney General has asked a judge to delay the release of a report placing a value on the Christ and St. Luke hospitals as they leave the Health Alliance.
The valuation from VMG Health, a valuation and transaction advisory firm with offices in Nashville and Dallas, is due out this week. Attorney General Marc Dann wants the report, ordered by Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Fred Nelson, kept under wraps until Oct. 31.
Dann's office has for weeks been leading negotiations between the Health Alliance and its departing hospitals. They're trying to determine details of the split, particularly how assets and debt are to be divided.
Jewish Hospital, a member of the Alliance, filed a motion Monday opposing a delay.
"Regardless of the status of negotiations with the Christ Hospital," the hospital's lawyers wrote in the filing, "the report is necessary to continue the process of effecting the withdrawal of St. Luke Hospital as the parties have not been able to reach agreement, or anything near it, in regard to that entity."
Jewish's board members "do not believe they would be properly discharging their duties if they bury their heads in the sand and turn a blind eye to information that is readily available as to the negotiations," according to the motion.
Health Alliance spokesman Tony Condia said the parties were in court Monday arguing the attorney general's motion.
Judge Nelson ruled in April that Christ and St. Luke could withdraw from the Alliance. A Health Alliance appeal of the decision is pending.
After the hospitals' attempts to negotiate details of the separation failed, Dann and University of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher invited the parties to negotiating sessions.
UC participates in the system on behalf of University Hospital.
credited by: bizjournals.com