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If the Virginia Mason merger goes through, four cities in the state - Bellingham, Centralia, Walla Walla and Yakima - will have only a Catholic hospital. The figure is 41% in Washington, according to a new report on religious-based hospital systems to be released in September by MergerWatch.
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hospital beds are in Catholic facilities. Subscribe to KHN's free Morning Briefing.Īlready, 1 in 6 U.S. Bellingham and other Washington cities saw similar service cessations following Catholic takeovers of secular hospitals. The issue is particularly urgent in Washington, where Swedish Medical Center - the largest nonprofit health care system in the Puget Sound area - merged with Providence Health & Services in 2012 and stopped providing most services to end pregnancies at the hospital. with four Catholic systems ranked in the top seven - and they frequently gobble up smaller, non-Catholic medical centers. These questions keep arising across the country because Catholic conglomerates are some of the largest hospital systems in the U.S. They touted the deal as a way to improve care.īut the plan was unclear on whether the secular hospitals could continue to offer services forbidden by church doctrine, including abortion, birth control, gender confirmation surgery and physician aid in dying, which is legal in Washington. Virginia Mason Health System and CHI Franciscan announced plans in mid-July to form a joint operating company including 12 hospitals and more than 250 other treatment sites in the Puget Sound region and the Yakima area in central Washington. The proposed merger of a well-regarded secular hospital system and a larger Roman Catholic system in Washington state has triggered new alarms about religious restrictions on patients’ access to care.
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This story can be republished for free ( details). This story also ran on The Seattle Times.