Health First, Parrish Hope To Expand To Volusia County
By Dr. James Palermo // August 25, 2014
BREVARD HEALTH SYSTEMS TWO OF FOUR FINALISTS UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR BERT FISH MEDICAL CENTER
The board of directors of Bert Fish Medical Center is presently in discussion with four hospital systems regarding proposals to lease, purchase or partner with the 112-bed non-profit acute care hospital, which is located in New Smyrna Beach and has served the Southeast Volusia County community for the past 60 years.
The finalists in the running at this time are Brevard County’s Health First Inc. and Parrish Medical Center, Daytona Beach’s Halifax Health and Orlando-based Florida Hospital.
The Bert Fish board will review and deliberate over finalized proposals, the exact details of which have not yet been released, from each system over the next several weeks.
Health First Health Plans expanded into Volusia County a year ago when they partnered with Florida Hospital to offer and administer Florida Hospital Care Advantage health plans, for which Bert Fish Medical Center is an in-network provider.
Both Brevard systems offer multidisciplinary healthcare services and have growing multi-specialty physician groups.
Depending on the details of the final proposal, expanding services to Volusia County through Bert Fish Medical Center would add a fifth hospital to the Health First System, which has hospitals in Cape Canaveral, Viera, Melbourne and Palm Bay, and a second hospital to Titusville’s Parrish Medical Center.
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