NATCHEZ — Essent Healthcare’s plans to purchase Natchez Regional Medical Center were not as far along as some hospital board members thought.

Essent President and CEO Mike Browder said his company’s conversations about buying local hospitals were “robust investigatory conversations.”

“No deal was imminent,” he said.

Hospital board trustee Bernie Pyron said he was surprised to learn the hospital deal was off but started having some doubts about the process approximately three weeks ago.

“I thought (Essent) would have done something, like send a deposit or a letter of intent,” he said.

Browder said one of the larger contributing factors that ended the sale talks was his company’s inability to consolidate the local healthcare market.

And that means a deal with Healthcare Management Associates, which owns Natchez Community Hospital, could not be reached.

Browder said his company was very excited by the idea of “one really strong (healthcare) provider,” for Natchez.

And when it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen, talks ceased, Browder said.

But while NRMC employees and others only recently became aware of Essent’s intention to buy Natchez Community as a contingent to purchase Regional, Browder said that’s been part of the plan all along.

“We’ve been very clear about that,” Browder said of initial conversations with Regional CEO Scott Phillips. “There was no mistake about that. We think this would be a perfect one-hospital town.”

But Browder said talks on the Natchez Regional and Natchez Community sales never progressed enough to warrant even being called “deals.”

Pyron and fellow board member Dan Bland both said they thought the sale had progressed further than it actually had.

“I thought it was further along,” Bland said.

Browder said his company’s talks hand not yet progressed to include the actual sale price of either hospital.

Additionally, neither Browder nor any member of his team had been to Natchez in relation to the purchase of Regional or Community.

While Browder came to Natchez, and NRMC, on unrelated business approximately four years ago, the most recent sales talks did not warrant a team being deployed to study either of the facilities, he said.

Phillips said it is possible that he also thought the sale process had progressed further than it had since most negotiations took place between Essent, Ochsner and HMA.

But Phillips, like Browder, said the sale was not pending, nor had any deals been reached.

“We had an expression of interest, not a formal offer to purchase,” Phillips said.

And while Phillips said a price for NRMC had not been discussed, he did say Essent was aware of Regional’s debts and had indicated they would have offered enough to cover those debts.

“We had a floor, not a ceiling,” he said of the offer.

But now, with the hospital’s lone bidder gone, Phillips is focused on running Regional as efficiently as possible.

In the coming weeks, part of Phillips’ focus will include finding new doctors to work at the hospital and finding a way to incorporate Regional into a larger hospital system.

And while Phillips said the hospital is still for sale, the current economy has created an environment unfavorable to the facility’s sale.