Separation Anxiety

"We're working with health plans to help Precedent be included in our system-wide contracts," says Terry White, Centura's executive vice president in charge of Denver operations. "We have some financial risk with Precedent, and we are in a business relationship with them. We have an interest in seeing that they are successful."

That interest could translate into a new phase in the ongoing fight for the Denver health-care market between Columbia/HCA and Centura, with Precedent right in the middle. As the battle shakes out and both hospital systems try to secure a major presence in all the key parts of the metro area, even more new health-care facilities probably will be built in Denver. That way, if insurers start negotiating exclusive contracts with one system or another, both Columbia/ HCA and Centura will have their bases covered.

Patients could come out the winners in this high-stakes game. "If the competition revolves around price--and it may very well--businesses and consumers could get very nice discounts from all this," says Tom Rockers, a former Denver hospital executive and now head of The Alliance, an outfit providing insurance products to employers. "And it could be good for the community in the long run."

And the Precedent doctors will have proved an important point along the way. "Columbia/HCA may have bought the bricks and mortar that were Rose," says Abrams. "But they didn't buy the doctors that were there. We have our own ideas about what's right for patients and what's right for medicine. And we'll do it our way."

Visit www.westword.com to read related Westword stories.