in Wisconsin Rapids which was ….

in Wisconsin Rapids which was formed from Aspirus buying out the local partnership with that hospital.

As part of the deal, Aspirus Medford Foundation will go entirely under Aspirus’ umbrella and support healthcare needs with the money raised by the organization committed to remaining in this area.

MMA has its roots in 1958 when a group of area residents gathered together to get a hospital built in Medford. That hospital opened in 1962. Things operated along for many years and Len Hamman noted that in 2001 the board and management of what was then Memorial Hospital of Taylor County saw a big change in providing healthcare to rural areas and decided to partner with another organization — Aspirus. An agreement was reached to sell 50% of the hospital and clinics to Aspirus and retain 50% with the MMA.

“It was a pretty smart thing looking back,” he said, noting that the goal of the MMA at the time was to make sure healthcare services stayed in the area. He said over the years the hospital had renovations and continued to do well.

He said that Aspirus showed that they knew what they were doing.

“We should be proud of our local hospital and how well they have done,” Hamman said.

Over time, the MMA’s role shifted from helping to oversee the hospital operations to serving as a community board and helping with community projects.

He said that in 2018, the MMA board through a strategic planning process identified a need to put money into the community, leading to a broader discussion about what should be MMA’s focus going forward. The major question was if the MMA needed to continue to have a role in managing the hospital or could they withdraw from that and focus on the community.

He said this discussion was going on behind the scenes when last September, Aspirus approached the MMA board about the MMA transferring its ownership in AMHC entirely to Aspirus. He noted that at the time, MMA board members had been considering beginning the talks with Aspirus to do the same thing.

Hamman said the result would be a shift for MMA from being a charitable membership organization to a non-member private foundation with the financial ability to make an impact in the community.

“Aspirus will keep running the hospital, we don’t need to worry about that anymore,” he said.

He said that with the move forward, would come a transfer of money which he said could impact the community into the fore. “Forever if we do things correctly,” he said.

“I am super excited about this” he said. Lange explained that over the past nine months they have worked with negotiating with Aspirus about the transfer. He said they got outside help in identifying the value of what MMA’s ownership interest constituted in terms of dollars and cents.

He said the negotiations were amicable because everyone wanted the same thing in the end. “It makes negotiations a lot easier when you are not adversarial,” he said, noting that the MMA board wanted to ensure that healthcare still thrives in the area.

He said future giving would remain aligned with the community health needs assessments and there would still remain connection with Aspirus and joint board memberships. He said the logic is to create a community more people want to live in and more business want to be in.

“It wasn’t any sort of decision made on a whim,” he said.

The negotiations culminated in a board meeting on April 19 when the board approved withdrawing its 50% ownership in AMHC. This was the recommendation brought to membership for approval at the annual meeting on Monday.

MMA member Catherine Leifeld questioned the groups’ commitment to serving all of the AMHC service area. She noted the largest share of donations in recent years have been to projects in the city of Medford.

Amanda Lange, director of Aspirus Hospital Foundation, replied that while people in the other areas are aware of the funding potential requests haven’t come forward from those areas.

Leifeld asked how people could become involved in working with the new foundation as it shifts from a member organization to a private foundation.

John Lange said like other community boards there would be people invited to serve on them and term limits with people rotating on and off. He said a lot of that is still in the works and they have not finalized all the details. He said their goal would be to have good representation on the board from throughout the area.

“What is the price tag,” asked MMA member Deb Woods. She noted that AMHC has $90 million in assets according to the balance sheets. “What will we end up with?” she asked, noting the board is asking the members to vote on something without knowing all the information.

That answer still remains vague at this point.

Hamman said that until everything is signed that amount is still confidential. Lange said this was a reality when it came to negotiations. He noted that it isn’t a dollar for dollar to the balance sheet and this is the reason for getting the outside evaluation of what MMA’s share is worth.

MMA board member Randy Juedes said they also needed to factor in the lack of marketability with MMA’s original partnership agreement with Aspirus preventing them from selling to anyone else. He emphasized that the negotiations were amicable with both groups wanting the same end. “We felt in the end we got a very fair value for our interest,” he said.

He projected that the amount the new foundation would have would allow it to do four to five times as much giving in the area as it does now. “This substantially increases our ability to give to the community,” he said. Jesse Tischer, SVP & President, Regional Markets at Aspirus for this region noted that Aspirus is a 501c3 organization and as such all the assets remain community owned. “It is not like there is an owner, all of us are partial owners of that community asset,” he said.

Board members noted that it would make the conversation easier and more transparent if they were able to release the amount at this time.

MMA member and past board chairman Mike Riggle said the issue has been being talked about by board members since at least 2018. He said that while he trusts the current board members implicitly, he said he would like them to treat the money as an endowment with only spending the interest earned so that it lasts well beyond the current board.

“Once this hits the press MMA will now be considered a cash cow,” he said, noting that groups would begin asking for funds.

“I am not saying that is bad, that is the fact,” he said.

Aspirus Medford Foundation board secretary Kris O’Leary asked about the future of that group’s efforts and if it would continue to operate as its own foundation. Amanda Lange explained that the only change would be that it would fall under Aspirus rather than the MMA but would continue to operate on its own with its own board.

Riggle made the motion and MMA member Bill Klingbeil seconded to adopt the resolutions completing the sale to Aspirus.

During discussion of the motion, Woods again raised concern about the sale price not being released. “I understand the confidentiality, I have an issue with voting on something where we don’t know the financial impact,” she said. “Without having that how can you vote on something where you are not going to understand what you are getting,” she said.

Juedes agreed that it was awkward for it to work that way, and noted that the vote had to happen before they could make that amount public. “I would hope everyone to trust in the board that due diligence has been done,” Juedes said.

“That is why membership elects the board,” Amanda Lange noted saying that they needed to trust the board.

Riggle spoke in favor of the sale, saying that in his mind there were two choices. They could move forward with this deal and get a fair price payment from Aspirus or stay the same and keep it like it is. “If you stand still you are going backwards,” Riggle said, noting that even if the board only got $5 million they would be moving ahead and be able to do their own things. He said the people working on the negotiations were doing the best that they can. “I trust them to do their due diligence,” he said.

“No matter what we get it will be a movement in the right direction,” he said.

AMHC CEO Dale Hustedt said he straddles both sides working with both organizations, but noted that this deal will be a win for all sides. He assured those present that healthcare in the community is growing and there is no doubt that Aspirus will be here for the long haul, fulfilling the mission of providing healthcare services for the area.

“I think it is inevitable,” Leifeld said, calling on the board to be sure to spread the wealth and not just focus on Medford.

On a voice vote the resolutions passed with no one opposing.

MMA board president John Lange said that with the approval of the MMA membership they expected to be able to release more details about the agreement as the deal was finalized in mid-June. The goal he said is to have everything completed by the end of the Aspirus fiscal year on June 30.