Opinion ID: 196952
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Scope of the Order. We briefly touch upon the

Text: 5. The Scope of the Order. Hospitals' objection to the Board's remedial order. Some background is desirable. The ALJ initially recommended that the Hospitals be required to furnish in a timely fashion, on request, information concerning any proposed affiliation or consolidation of Mercy Hospital and Providence Hospitals with one another and concerning proposed mergers, consolidations, or affiliations of Providence and Mercy Hospitals with other health care providers. See Providence Hosp., 1996 WL 48263, at . This language contains an evident ambiguity, raising uncertainty as to whether it applies to all mergers (past and future), or only to the stalled SPHS/HCAHR merger, or strictly to future (indeterminate) mergers. The Board removed this ambiguity, modifying the recommended order to require the Hospitals to furnish to [MNA] the information requested in [MNA's] requests of July 26 and August 5, 1994. Id. at  n.1. To the Board's way of thinking, this modification more closely reflects the violations found. Id. The modified order responds to the reality that, here, an unusual concatenation of events exist, e.g., the Hospitals' 22 presentation of the merger as a done deal, their insistence that the MOU obligated the signing parties even after HCAHR had repudiated it, and their stonewalling in the face of repeated information requests. What is more, by specifying the information that the Hospitals must disclose, the Board limits the remedy and leaves future transactions untouched. This step fits neatly with our belief that each situation is sui generis, and that pending mergers may or may not be a proper subject of effects bargaining (depending on the individualized circumstances). Based on these considerations, the modification falls well within the Board's province.