Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox last Saturday approved the $1.5 billion sale of the Detroit Medical Center to a for-profit Tennessee-based health care company. The deal awaits federal approval and is expected to close Dec. 31.
The sale would mean an $850 million investment in the medical center’s Detroit campus, marking the largest private capital investment in the city’s history.
In signing off on the deal, Cox added a handful of additional requirements that he said would help insure that Vanguard Health System would maintain DMC’s commitment to serving poor and uninsured patients.
DMC, an eight-hospital system, is the state’s largest charity-care provider and Detroit’s main public safety hospital.
The new requirements include that Vanguard continue to use $140 million in restricted charitable gifts now held by DMC for charity-care purposes. The system also must give written reports for 10 years to a new 20-member board about how it is adhering to its charity-care commitments.
Cox said the board must at least provide a telephone hotline and e-mail address for public comment.
