The state of Maine granted Certificate of Need approval Thursday to affiliate Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft with Northern Light Health, a key step in the two organizations’ integration plans.

The commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services granted the health care organizations approval to share financial results, quality of outcomes and service statistics for three years after the affiliation is completed, Northern Light said in a news release.

“The approval of the Certificate of Need is an important step in welcoming Mayo Regional into our integrated healthcare system,” Michelle Hood, Northern Light’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “While there is still much work to be done, we remain on target to complete the final steps of the legal and regulatory processes in early 2020.”

Northern Light’s board of directors voted in March 2019 to move ahead with plans to pursue the integration with Mayo Regional, which opened in 1978 and is governed by representatives of 13 surrounding towns. Northern Light is Maine’s second-largest health care system after MaineHealth, with more than 12,000 employees across multiple hospitals, primary care and specialty care practices.

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