University Hospital merger documents being released

The University of Louisville will hand over records pertaining to the merger involving University Hospital, under a settlement signed Tuesday.

The documents will include "the June 14 agreement to consolidate the three health-care systems into one — though without some supporting documents — and the new system's affiliation agreement with U of L," reports Patrick Howington of The Courier-Journal. The move is a victory for Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell (C-J photo by Pam Spaulding), who sued U of L after merger-related documents were not provided to him upon his open- records request. Though he will not receive all the documents he wished to view, he agreed to settle because of time constraints; the merger is expected to be final by Dec. 31.

The merger involves University Hospital, Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare and St. Joseph Health System.The records, which will be handed over by Thursday, will include "the bylaws and articles of incorporation of the still-unnamed new system and a new lease agreement for the state-owned University Hospital property," Howington reports.

A table showing the merger's benefits to U of L was given over Tuesday. It shows U of L will get a larger piece of the hospital's profits than before. "The hospital gave U of L $11 million each of the past four years, but the new company would give the university $11 million each year, adjusted for inflation, plus 24 percent of the 'excess cash' — loosely meaning profit — of the entire system," Howington reports. (Read more)