 | |
| Formerly | Wellmont Health Systems/Mountain States Health Alliance |
|---|---|
| Industry | Health care |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Headquarters | 408 N State of Franklin Rd., Johnson City, Tennessee, |
Area served | Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky |
Number of employees | 13,800 [1] |
| Website | www |
Ballad Health is a chain of hospitals headquartered in Johnson City, Tennessee. [2] It includes 20 hospitals - including Niswonger Children's Hospital and Woodridge Psychiatric Hospital - and numerous outpatient facilities in Tennessee and Virginia including urgent care centers and primary care locations. [3] They operate a blood bank, named Marsh Regional Blood Center. [4] The healthcare system's website states that its service area includes 29 counties, some of which are in Kentucky and North Carolina. [5]
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In 2018 Ballad was issued a Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) by the State of Tennessee (and a Cooperative Agreement in Virginia) which allowed it to operate an inpatient monopoly in its service area. As a condition of granting the COPA, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH or the Department) required the new health system to reinvest expected savings from the merger in ways that would substantially benefit residents living in the system’s geographic service area. In addition, the new health system was required to maintain health facilities in the communities they operated in prior to the merger, raise their eligibility limits for 100 percent free charity care to 225% of the FPL, and not increase prices beyond an agreed upon cap tied to the Medicare Market Basket. They are also required to refrain from a variety of other anti-competitive behavior outlines in the Terms and Conditions now in its fifth revision. The TDH reports annually on Ballad Health's compliance with the terms and conditions of the COPA.
The current Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ballad Health is Alan Levine. [6] Levine's total compensation for 2024 was $2,247,795. [7] Levine was secretary for the Agency of Health Care Administration under governor Jeb Bush in Florida [8] and secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals for governor Bobby Jindal in Louisiana. [9] He also previously co-chaired the healthcare transition for Forida governor (and now senator) Rick Scott, whose led Columbia/HCA as CEO when the company was fined a record $1.7 Billion for Medicare and Medicaid fraud. [10]
Under Levine's leadership, Ballad's strategy has included consolidating duplicative healthcare facilities in rural areas with the approval of the departments of health in Tennessee and Virginia under the terms of the COPA, in most cases repurposing these facilities for other health needs and redirecting savings towards new health programs - such as behavioral health. [11] This has not been without controversy in the region. [12] The health system has also improved its financial sustainability during his tenure, with A level bond ratings for the first time. [13]