macon — The Macon-Bibb County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a town meeting on Tuesday afternoon to address growing concerns over the pending strategic collaboration between Navicent Health and Carolina-based health system Atrium Health.
About 25 people gathered in the Macon-Bibb Government Center, voicing fear of rising healthcare costs and the security of employees at Navicent Health.
"We don't want this merger to take place and then we're told after the merger has been agreed upon, it's too late then," said Macon-Bibb NAACP president, Gwenette Westbrooks.
The discussion was moderated by Westbrooks, who argued that the community has not been granted enough information about the partnership, and former Macon Mayor C. Jack Ellis. Both say Navicent Health have a duty to the community.
"The organization, the NAACP, and the community at large, I think you have the right to ask questions," said Ellis.
Both acknowledged that because the partnership is still in the negotiation stage, that there is much the hospitals cannot discuss.
"I know that when you are proposing something like this that there is information that you cannot give," Westbrooks said. "We need to know some of what's going to take place and what the plans are for this community before they actually vote on it or before it's approved. That's very frustrating for you to have to sit and wait and not know anything about something that's going to affect the entire community."
Navicent Health has said that the partnership would reduce costs and increase access to more rural areas because of their telehealth system. Westbrooks said she has access to litigation that says Atrium caused healthcare costs to go up elsewhere.
Macon-Bibb County Commissioner Elaine Lucas was in attendance. She said that the commission has met with Navicent and Atrium representatives at least three separate times and even as recently as Monday. She reiterated that a lot of information cannot be shared because of negotiations.
"I think the reason that they are not sharing more is that they are in negotiations and that if they share a whole lot of the details then that weakens their position in this proposed merger," Lucas said. "However, they have made a bad mistake in not communicating that to this organization."
Lucas said she would like to organize a meeting for people to find out more about the partnership. Westbrooks said if that meeting does not yield the desired results, then the NAACP would take their concerns higher up.
"If they are not willing to do that, then our next step would be to plan to go to the session and share the information that we have with the Attorney General there," Westbrooks said.
Before the partnership could be official, it would have to be reviewed by the Georgia Attorney General's office.