University of Iowa hospitals’ North Liberty expansion set for reconsideration Aug. 31

Following a stinging denial in February and an unexpected delay over the summer, University of Iowa Health Care’s revamped application to build a $230 million facility off Interstate 380 in North Liberty is set to have a second shot this month before the State Health Facilities Council.

On May 20, UIHC resubmitted an application to build “one of the most expensive proposed projects in council history” after the five-member appointed group on Feb. 17 — following seven hours of testimony — narrowly voted 3-2 to deny permission to build.

Representatives from Mercy Iowa City and Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids were among the 53 that submitted letters of opposition to the UIHC project after its initial application to the state last year.

In its revised application, UIHC attempted to clarify the need and its intentions for the proposed 48-bed, 300,000-square-foot facility at the corner of Highway 965 and Forevergreen Road — while also trying to appease worries it would poach community health customers and put smaller facilities out of business.

This time, the state has received more than 80 letters of opposition, including from critics who voiced concern the first time. But it also has received more letters of support — 69 now, compared with 27 the first time.

Arguments for and against

Those in support of the project include high-profile names like Chuck Long, former Hawkeye and NFL football player; Mary Ferentz, wife of Hawkeye head football coach Kirk Ferentz; bank and business executives; church leaders; physicians; patients; North Liberty Mayor Terry Donohue; Coralville Mayor John Lundell; and state Sens. Mark Costello, R-Imogene, Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, and Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford.

“Our residents are made to wait for services because UIHC has been so overwhelmed for such a long time,” Steve Roe, executive director of the Oaknoll Retirement Residence, wrote in support. “Our residents cannot stay in the emergency room for 24-48 ours while they wait to be admitted to the hospital. They are all older adults with complex medical diagnoses and comorbid conditions. Some of them are living with dementia and cannot tolerate bustling places and loud noises.”

Those who wrote in opposition include area physicians, clinics and hospital systems — including Mercy Iowa City, UnityPoint Health based in West Des Moines and Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

“After evaluating the data and having conversations with multiple executive health care leaders asking us to weigh in on this application, Wellmark provides this letter of opposition to the application,” according to its letter, signed by Vice President Tom Newton. “Wellmark has a long history of evaluating the facts and sparingly providing letters of support or opposition to the council dependent upon the impact to our members and employer customers.”

But, he added, “Wellmark is concerned about the proposed hospital in North Liberty because the application and the data clearly suggest this would increase health care costs.”

Wellmark accused UIHC of creating “costly excess health care capacity” with its proposed project and needing 450 additional health care workers to staff the space, which are likely to come from “existing health care organizations struggling to retain their current workforce.”

Plus, according to Wellmark, “UIHC recognizes that health care delivered in an academic medical center costs more than the same care delivered in a community hospital.”

UIHC advocates and executives have argued their campus needs more space to treat the growing number of patients who are too sick and complex for community care.

“Iowa is currently facing unmet demand in access to highly specialized, coordinated care that is only expected to increase,” according to many of the letters of support the state received and then provided to The Gazette in response to a public records request.

After the council’s denial of the UIHC application in February, Steindler Orthopedic Clinic announced it bought 34 acres at the same North Liberty interchange that UIHC wants to build on and is planning to develop there.

Council resignation

UIHC’s new application was supposed to get a second hearing before the council July 15. Then council member Carol Earnhardt — one of the three who voted against the project — on May 24 resigned “effective immediately,” four years before her six-year term was set to expire.

While still accepting letters of support and opposition from anyone affected by the project, the state postponed consideration of the proposal until the governor could appoint a new fifth council member to serve as a tiebreaker, if necessary, when the application is heard Aug. 31.

On July 20, Gov. Kim Reynolds appointed Kelly Blackford — a Marion Republican — to step into the vacated term, set to expire April 30, 2025. Blackford, according to her LinkedIn profile, earned a bachelor’s and master’s of business administration from the UI a decade ago, and has spent the years since in various manager and director positions at Rockwell Collins and Collins Aerospace.

The section of Iowa Code establishing the council and its powers requires five councilors broadly representative of the state’s geographical regions. No more than three can be affiliated with the same political party, and all have to have “demonstrated by prior activities an informed concern for the planning and delivery of health services.”

The State Health Facilities Council website doesn’t detail how each member demonstrated such “informed concern.” And state officials haven’t yet provided The Gazette with the council member application materials.

The current council includes no registered Democrats, although three are registered Republicans, according to a state database. The other two include an independent and Libertarian. Blackford joins council members from Scott, Polk, Pottawattamie and Cherokee counties.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com