PeaceHealth and Southwest Washington Medical Center hope to forgo a regulatory review of their proposed merger.
In a letter to the state Department of Health, Peter Adler, a senior vice president for Bellevue-based PeaceHealth, asked for an exemption from the state’s pre-merger “certificate of need” requirements. He wrote that the exemption should be allowed because, in part, the proposed merger “will not result in the establishment of a new hospital.”
Karen Nidermayer, an analyst for the state’s health department, said Thursday regulators have 30 days to rule the request. The two nonprofit medical systems launched merger negotiations in March.
