RWJBH-Englewood merger: How one call started it all

Englewood Health CEO Warren Geller said he doesn’t remember the moment as being anything dramatic.

He just knew he called RWJBarnabas Health CEO Mark Manigan some months after Englewood’s attempt to merge with Hackensack Meridian Health was blocked by regulators.

“I reached out to Mark directly and said, ‘Hey, I love what you’re doing there — and, by the way, we have very similar philosophies: Let’s get to know each other even better,’” Geller recalled. “There was no rush.”

Geller said the particulars for a merger were in place — but that Englewood wasn’t desperately seeking a suitor after its attempt to join HMH were rebuffed.

“There was no panic — we didn’t go out with an RFP to the market — but the principles were still there, and we wanted a partner,” he said.

That hope took a big step Monday, when the two systems announced they had signed a definitive agreement to make Englewood a part of RWJBH.

It’s a moment Manigan said he had hoped for since their discussions started.

“Englewood is a real gem,” he said.

One he was glad to see came back onto the marketplace.

“Having a fairly aggressive view of the marketplace, and knowing the opportunities that are out there, I was glad to talk,” he said.

Manigan said an on-site visit to Englewood sold him.

“When I walked around the building with Warren, I could tell that the cultural connection was there,” he said. “Not only in terms of who they are as an organization and who we are in terms of core values, but the commitment to providing excellent clinical care — the commitment to taking care of those who are a little less fortunate than others.”

Under the terms of the agreement, RWJBarnabas Health will make significant capital investments in Englewood (approximately $500 million in the coming years) and will bolster and expand the network of outpatient services and community health programs currently provided by Englewood Health, resulting in greater access and an even higher level of care for the community.

They just won’t be able to do it right away.

The agreement still requires state and federal approval — a process that figures to take into the first quarter of 2027.

As Englewood saw with its agreement with HMH — and RWJBH saw in a failed attempt to combine with Saint Peter’s in New Brunswick — a definite agreement is just the first step to approval.

Geller made it clear that Englewood would operate independently until final approvals are given.

“Once you sign the definitive agreement, you can plan to do things together, but we operate completely separately until it goes through all the regulatory bodies of both the state and federal level,” he said. “And we’ll do that, but we’ll get to put some plans on paper so that when it does get approved, we’ll have a running start.”

Both sides expressed confidence that the deal will go through.

Geller feels the deal sells itself.

“You could put all of it on paper, and it’s all for the right reasons,” he said. “There’s nothing we have to explain away. We want to be together to help more people. We want to advance clinical services. We want to buy innovative new technology. We want to jointly recruit experts together and give people access to them.”