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Officials reject UM/Nueterra CON application

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A proposed partnership between the Kansas-based for-profit healthcare giant, Nueterra, and the University of Missouri ground to a halt today when officials on the state’s Missouri Health Facilities Review Committee rejected their latest application for a certificate of need.

The University of Missouri and Nueterra partnered to apply to build a 10-bed, $35 million hospital in the Columbia area designed to supplement an existing healthcare facility in Callaway County. Officials supporting the project said that the Callaway facility was in need of support and that much of the customer base was in nearby Columbia.

But several officials, many led by Boone County Hospital Center, came out to oppose the project, which they said was a move by the school to undercut the local non-profit BJC operation at Boone.

“This project couldn’t be further from meeting their need,” said Boone President Jim Sinek at the meeting.

Bob Pugh, president of MBS Books and former mayor of Columbia, blasted the application of Nuetrerra and the University, saying it would drive up healthcare costs for commercial payers like him.

“[The application] is frankly an insult to the intelligence of everyone here, it’s going to drive up the cost of healthcare and I, for one, do not intend on pitching in for that cost,” Pugh said

Opposition also said the hospital was clearly intending to grow much larger than just 10 beds, pointing to the planned application for more than 200,000 square feet of property development by Nuetrerra awaiting a hearing at the Columbia City Council.

Ultimately, the CON commission easily voted against the application, 5-2.