Create a 10-word scroll-stopping headline for: UNC Health Also Made a Play at Acquiring WakeMed | Vibe NC

Days after it became public that WakeMed intended to merge with Charlotte-based Atrium Health, UNC Health sent the Wake County system an offer. 

WakeMed quickly rejected it. UNC is still open to negotiate. 

Atrium’s plans to take control of WakeMed, an independent nonprofit health system, made a splash in the Triangle region earlier this month. The two health systems quietly planned their merger over two years, but surprised elected officials in the region when the plans appeared as an item on a Wake County commissioners’ agenda on Friday, May 1.

The county had planned to quickly approve its part of the merger at its May 4 meeting by tweaking legal documents from the 1997 asset transfer, when WakeMed first changed from a public entity to an independent nonprofit. 

Wake County still retains some real estate reversion rights related to WakeMed. Instead of approving the legal tweaks as planned, commissioners agreed to a 90-day pause while health leaders hold a series of listening sessions. State Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office also said it plans to review the transaction.

WakeMed’s hasty announcement of a proposed Atrium deal rattled leaders and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Health care consolidations over the past decade have sent costs for patients soaring as competition shrinks. The number of independently owned hospitals in North Carolina has shrunk from 53 to 20 since 2000.

Health systems argue that strategic partnerships are a way to ward off mounting financial headwinds, but research suggests otherwise. 

At a media event on May 5, WakeMed CEO Donald Gintzig said the organization had fielded many offers over the years. He also insisted the hospital system was not “for sale.” 

UNC Health made an offer the same day, WakeMed confirmed. In a statement to The Assembly, WakeMed spokesperson Kate Wilkes said the offer was “unsolicited.” The terms are unclear.

WakeMed carefully reviewed it, Wilkes said, but is sticking with Atrium. 

“Our Board of Directors conducted a thorough, deliberate, two-year evaluation process for the future of WakeMed, which included potential partners,” she said. “The Board determined that a strategic combination with Atrium Health is in the best interest of WakeMed and the communities we serve.”

The Triangle is home to three major health care players: Duke Health based in Durham County, UNC Health in Orange County, and WakeMed in Wake County.

A UNC-WakeMed combination would reduce competition, Wilkes said, bringing the number of health systems in the county from three to two. UNC Health owns Raleigh’s Rex Hospital, one of WakeMed’s top competitors.

“Combined, WakeMed and UNC Health would control 80 percent of the healthcare market in Wake County,”…