March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

MRI scan provider subject of sale talk> DHS mulling bid for medical service

AUGUSTA — A Virginia firm associated with Dr. Francis I. Kittredge Jr. of Bangor wants to buy a company that provides medical scanning services at six Maine hospitals.

The sale could raise antitrust concerns at the Maine Department of Human Services, which regulates the purchase and disposition of expensive medical technology.

According to an application filed at DHS, American Health Centers Inc. of Alexandria, Va., wants to buy CT Shared Services Inc. of Presque Isle for $1.35 million.

“Certainly, we’ve had discussions with Dr. Kittredge,” said Dr. William Blackwell, a retired Houlton radiologist who is president of CT Shared Services. “It is not a fait accompli.”

Founded in 1983, the Presque Isle company is owned by nine doctors in Aroostook County. It operates a mobile magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner that serves St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor and the hospitals in Caribou, Presque Isle, Houlton, Fort Kent and Millinocket.

The company has 12 employees. No changes in staffing or equipment are anticipated if AHCI completes the purchase.

CT Shared Services earned $519,578 in 1993 on total revenues of $3.19 million, according to information filed with DHS. Blackwell said the only way to preserve the mobile MRI in an era of health care reform was to broaden its service base. Kittredge’s group offers a chance for growth, he said.

Last year, however, state officials refused to give Kittredge permission to operate a mobile MRI route for hospitals from Washington County through Bangor to Somerset County.

Regulators were concerned about the financial viability of the service and potential antitrust problems, according to John Dickens of DHS. Kittredge’s company already owns the MRI scanner at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

“This (CT Shared Services) application will raise some of the same issues,” said Dickens, who expects the review to be completed by Christmas.

W. Grant Heggie Jr., president of AHCI — and former head of the Maine Hospital Association — dismissed the concerns. Heggie said there was plenty of competition for MRI services in Maine, including three mobile scanning routes and fixed MRI units in Bangor, Lewiston and Portland.

In its application, AHCI said the changing nature of health care will cause more services to be delivered in outpatient, ambulatory and other nontraditional settings.

The Virginia company was incorporated in 1992 to acquire and manage businesses in such health-related fields as MRI scanning, ultrasound, radiology, cardiology and surgery. The principals are Kittredge, Heggie and Dr. Lee S. Goldsmith of Scarsdale, N.Y.

According to information filed in Augusta, AHCI owns a growing array of for-profit businesses, including:

Magnetic Resonance Technologies of Bangor, which owns the MRI scanner at EMMC. Net income was estimated at $458,652 in 1994, on total revenues of $3.09 million.

A mobile MRI route serving six hospitals in Vermont and New Hampshire. AHCI bought the business in February 1994 for $250,000 and has since invested about $1.8 million in new equipment. Net income was estimated at $247,684 this year on revenues of $1.08 million.

A lithotripsy treatment group in Paramus, N.J. The business was founded in October 1990, and is expected to earn $237,440 this year on revenues of $3.18 million.

Kittredge began acquiring for-profit, health-related businesses in 1974, when he developed the MediMaine medical office complex on Essex Street in Bangor. He recently won local approval for a $15.7 million expansion project at MediMaine, which he hopes to transform into a regional outpatient medical center.

Heggie said AHCI would oversee development of the 113,000-square-foot expansion. It is unclear whether the project needs DHS approval. Heggie claimed it doesn’t, but state regulators said it might.


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