Mon Health And CAMC Announce Merger

Two hospital systems in West Virginia’s northern and southern regions are merging together.

Charleston Area Medical Center and Mon Health announced Thursday they are merging into one health system to be called Vandalia Health.

“Neither one of us are buying the other. Both of us are coming in together with everything we own and are reconstituting our board,” said Mon Health CEO David Goldberg.

Both parties have entered a non-binding agreement. The deal is contingent on state and federal regulators’ approval.

Mon Health operates hospitals in Morgantown and other northern cities. CAMC in Charleston is the largest hospital in the state.

Goldberg said he’s partnered with CAMC CEO David Ramsey for years. The two have helped each other’s businesses learn new payment and telehealth systems.

“It’s been a great collaboration and then just this past December, Mr. Ramsey and I were having lunch … and we talked about how we can do better together,” Goldberg said.

Goldberg said patients won’t see big changes anytime soon, but the deal should offer patients more options in the near future.

“Do I think everybody from central West Virginia that’s a patient of Mon Health system will go down to Charleston? No. Do I think everybody who’s from the southern part of the state will come north? No,” Goldberg said. “But for the services that matter, where our cardiologists collaborate, our oncologists collaborate, our surgeons collaborate, and all other doctors in between, now there’s choice.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.