Prime Healthcare Foundation can acquire Central Maine Healthcare as long as it does not cut hospitals or essential services, state officials said this week.

Central Maine Healthcare, which owns Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Bridgton Hospital, Rumford Hospital and a variety of care facilities and physician practices, has been operating at a deficit for years and lost more than $29 million in 2024, according to a letter from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

The foundation, a nonprofit based in California that operates 18 hospitals in seven states, though none previously in Maine, has vowed to invest $150 million in the three hospitals and other facilities over the next five years.

The nonprofit projects positive operating gains by 2026, following the implementation of a new electronic medical records system, insourcing of services and a medical record coding process that “reduces denials and improves collection rates” of health insurance claims, the DHHS letter said.

Without the acquisition, the letter said, the foundation expects that Central Maine Healthcare’s financial position will continue to deteriorate.

State officials outline several conditions for the five years after the acquisition, including that the foundation does not make reductions or changes to the level of essential services the system offers “except as necessary to meet community needs.”

Prime Healthcare must continue operating Central Maine Medical Center as a general acute care hospital offering general surgery, emergency care and other services. Bridgton and Rumford hospitals can operate as general acute care hospitals or critical access hospitals, a Medicare designation for rural facilities.

The system must provide audited financial statements annually for three years.

Officials from both systems say the acquisition, which must commence within two years of state approval, will enable Central Maine Healthcare to serve its aging population amid “the need for significant capital investments in infrastructure and expensive technology, medical staffing shortages and low government reimbursements.”