As many as 200 Lutheran Health Network physicians walked out of a meeting with Lutheran's parent company Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems Monday. The meeting was held just after the for-profit operator rejected the LHN physician group's $2.4 billion offer to purchase the health network, according to wane.com.
CHS officials said they rejected the offer because the $2.4 billion price tag was "at least $1 billion below [LHN's] fair market value," according to a statement released by the organization.
Lutheran Medical Staff President James Cameron, MD, told wane.com he called the emergency meeting in an effort "mend fences" between LHN medical staff and CHS. However, when CHS officials stood up to speak during the meeting, as many as 200 physicians walked out. Dr. Cameron said he and other LHN executives stayed because they had invited the representatives to the meeting, not because he supported CHS' decision to reject the offer.
Dr. Cameron said that despite the physicians' departure, he didn't sense any hostility between himself and the representatives, according to the report.
"This is a starting line," he told wane.com. "As this process moves forward it's going to be a trust building process."