Dear Wake County Commissioners,

In the next few months, you will make the most consequential decision of your tenure as a County Commissioner. You will decide whether OUR hospital remains accountable to the people of Wake County or if it is turned over to a private multi-billion dollar entity.

As organizations and community leaders based in Wake County, we are strongly opposed to the proposed takeover of WakeMed by Atrium, as it would surrender community control of this invaluable community resource and put the quality of our local healthcare at risk.

Time and time again, the results of hospital consolidation are clear: costs go up, staffing levels fall, quality of care suffers, and promises to the community go unkept. We don’t want that for our community, which is why we are joining the growing number of state and local leaders speaking up in opposition to this proposal.

This is a takeover, not a marriage. The proposal would give Atrium Health six of WakeMed’s fourteen board seats. Atrium would also become the “sole member” of WakeMed, “meaning that it would be the primary decision-maker for the hospital.” Let’s be clear about what this means: Atrium could unilaterally fire Commission-appointed board members on almost any pretext.

Atrium can make many promises, as it has around creating new jobs and avoiding layoffs, but they are just that: promises. They are not enforceable if we give up community control. Once public control is lost, new leadership is free to reduce services or change staffing levels.

Hospital mergers increase costs and don’t improve the quality of care. The wave of hospital mergers nationwide over the past 30 years has led to price increases with no clear evidence of increase in the quality of patient care. Agreements like this one are known as cross-market mergers. According to KFF, cross-market mergers have led to price increases ranging from 6 to 17 percent.

We already know that Atrium charges between 15 and 40 percent more than WakeMed currently does for services for state employees enrolled in the NC State Health Plan. Wake County patients will be the ones footing the bill via higher premiums and higher out-of-pocket expenses for the care they need. As Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell put it: “WakeMed has a 10 percent margin, a much lower rate of profit, and Atrium’s is like 40 percent, which makes me think that prices are going to go up here locally for care.”

The health of our community is too important to hand over to an outside entity. Our hospital is far too valuable a shared resource to be handed over through a secretive process with limited transparency and debate. WakeMed is especially critical to Southeast Raleigh, and is an essential community asset in the historically Black part of our city.

County Commissioners: You appoint the board of WakeMed and manage its bylaws on behalf of the people of Wake County. As our representatives at the negotiation table, you have the right and responsibility to reject any deal that does not serve our community. We strongly urge you to vote NO on this takeover of our hospital.