By Malcolm Butler
Northern Louisiana Medical Center could be headed for a change in ownership as Lincoln Parish healthcare leaders confirmed Friday they have begun a process that could ultimately transition the Ruston hospital to a new operator.
The Webster Parish Journal reported Friday morning that Minden Medical Center CEO Keith Cox confirmed Allegiance Health Management will divest itself of the Minden facility. The report also stated that NLMC, Mercy Regional Medical Center in Ville Platte and Acadian Medical Center in Eunice are included in an agreement involving four Allegiance-owned hospitals.
Following that report, Lincoln Parish Hospital Service District No. 1 Chairman Jay Guillot told the Lincoln Parish Journal that the district has been working with the Louisiana Department of Health for months and is now engaged with Allegiance in an informal process that includes the beginning stages of due diligence, establishing a value for NLMC and preliminary discussions with potential providers.
“We are in a process, working with Allegiance currently, an informal process, starting due diligence, to work towards establishing a value for the Northern Louisiana Medical Center,” Guillot said. “We are having early provider discussions with an ultimate goal of seeing if we can bridge from the existing operator to a new operator, but there’s certainly a lot that has to happen between now and then.”
Guillot said Lincoln Parish officials have not been involved in the discussions involving Minden Medical Center and said no final agreement for the sale of NLMC is currently in place.
Cox told the Webster Parish Journal there are interested buyers for Minden Medical Center and estimated the process there could take as long as six months.
Guillot said there is no specific timeline for the process involving NLMC.
“We certainly have a timeline we’d like to see, but these are very complicated processes,” Guillot said. “At this stage, we’re not in a position to give a specific timeline, but certainly as soon as we can expeditiously move it forward.”
Regardless of what ultimately happens with the ownership and operation of NLMC, Guillot said maintaining the hospital’s workforce and services remains a priority.
“Maintaining the staff and the operations, the great staff that we have in this operation, is certainly a commitment, no matter what happens in the future relative to the sale or not sale of the hospital,” Guillot said.
The discussions are the latest development in more than two years of work by local leaders to study the future of healthcare in Lincoln Parish.
The Lincoln Parish Police Jury created Hospital Service District No. 1 this summer following an extensive study of healthcare needs commissioned by the Lincoln Health Foundation, City of Ruston and Police Jury.
The January 2026 North Central Louisiana Healthcare Planning Final Report, prepared by Whitecap Health Advisors, documented significant patient outmigration and concerns surrounding local healthcare. Nearly half of Lincoln Parish patients seeking inpatient care in 2024 traveled outside the parish, primarily to Monroe and Shreveport, while NLMC’s share of the Lincoln Parish inpatient market declined from 52% in 2021 to 44% in 2024.
The study identified the need for a full-service inpatient hospital, including emergency and imaging services, while concluding that developing such a healthcare system would require a strategic partnership and outside capital.
Following the Hospital Service District’s inaugural meeting in August, Guillot called the Whitecap study the “starting point” for the district’s work and said it provided a roadmap for determining what Lincoln Parish could support.
“For me, it’s been active for a couple of years with the study, and creating the roadmap of what we think success looks like, and what we can support here in the parish and the city,” Guillot said at the time. “And we’re gonna be working towards fulfilling … that mission.”
That work has now advanced to discussions involving Allegiance and potential future providers.
“The LDH and the Hospital Service District are committed to maintaining this facility, with the ultimate goal of being able to bridge operators and implement our vision for the future based on the study,” Guillot said Friday.
The discussions also come following months of regulatory scrutiny at NLMC. State and federal regulators identified multiple deficiencies earlier this year, including a condition-level deficiency involving patient rights that placed the hospital’s Medicare participation at risk.
NLMC submitted corrective action plans and underwent repeat surveys, while some services were temporarily placed on diversion. Hospital officials later said the condition-level deficiencies had been cleared.
More recently, NLMC temporarily curtailed some services in September because of a shortage of medical supplies before announcing the following day that supplies had been restored and all diversions had been lifted.
Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker has been very vocal in his comments and desire to have better healthcare in Lincoln Parish.
“My hope and prayer for our hospital is that we provide quality healthcare for everyone in our parish and the surrounding areas to come to Ruston for healthcare that is of the highest level there is,” Walker said. “With our growth over the last 10 years and future growth, this is essential.”
The Lincoln Parish Journal reached out to NLMC CEO Arnie Young for a comment on the report. As of this time, there has been no response.
