THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510180418
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
Gov. George F. Allen Tuesday ruled out any sale of the University of Virginia or Medical College of Virginia hospitals by ordering that option dropped from a hospital privatization study.
``You can put up a `not for sale' sign,'' Allen said in a telephone interview with The Daily Progress of Charlottesville.
The teaching hospitals in Charlottesville and Richmond treat a majority of Virginia's poor and most seriously ill patients, and train the bulk of the state's doctors. The hospitals face a widening gap between state allocations and the real costs of providing indigent care and medical education.
Allen said he issued the order during a Tuesday morning meeting with Cabinet officials studying various privatization options for the state hospitals. The study was ordered by Allen and the General Assembly.
``I said to just take that off the table and focus on other aspects'' of the report due on his desk by Nov. 1, Allen said.
The other options under study include creating a quasi-governmental authorities to assume the hospitals' management or forming tax-exempt private foundations to run them.
But selling the hospitals, with an estimated combined net worth of more than $500 million, is no longer an option.
``I don't think there is a significant advantage of doing this,'' Allen said. by CNB