LEWISTON

Central Maine Healthcare Inc. has withdrawn its application to take over Parkview Adventist Medical Center in Brunswick, saying state regulators aren’t playing fair and are “inexplicably but undeniably committed to denying this application.”

CMHC, the parent organization of Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, began seeking state approval last year for Parkview to join CMHC. The two health care organizations worked together for years, with Parkview borrowing millions from the Lewiston-based health care company, but wanted to deepen and formalize the relationship. as Parkview’s finances and occupancy rate continued to worsen.

CMHC pushed forward until last winter, when the state division that reviews and recommends approval of health care projects was set to recommend denial of the merger, saying CMHC didn’t provide enough information in its application.

CMHC asked to put its application on hold for a year so it could get that information. The state agreed in February.

In a strongly worded letter to the department and an assistant attorney general, CMHC’s lawyer, Michael Poulin, alludes to hostility from division staff members and CMHC’s “request to resolve the Department’s concerns in a constructive manner.” He said the department’s plan to reactivate the application early was “plainly illegal,” but that CMHC saw no point in spending time, money and resources to appeal when the division seemed committed to denying the application.

The move was first reported by the Bangor Daily News and Sun Journal newspapers.

This story will be updated online and in Wednesday’s print editions of The Times Record.

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