Print this story | E-mail story | This story has 25 comments Add your own | iPod friendly
Regional is taxpayers' hospital
Published Sunday, April 6, 2008
Someone asked me last week why the newspaper is supporting Natchez Regional Medical Center so much.
The person had ties to Natchez Community Hospital, the privately owned, for-profit hospital that competes with the publicly owned, financially drowning Natchez Regional.
Last week, this newspaper mentioned in an editorial that if residents were worried about the troubled Natchez Regional Medical Center that they should utilize the hospital’s services.
On the surface, the man’s question is on point. We’d never take an editorial stance suggesting where someone should buy a car or truck.
Nor would we ever encourage a person to use a particular wireless phone provider.
Some of us have been critical or supportive of businesses in the past, but only in personal columns, rarely if ever in the “Our Opinion” section.
With Natchez Regional, however, the issue is a little different.
I gave the man a relatively short-answer: patient care and massive taxpayer money.
But understanding those takes some explaining.
Patient care is simple. Natchez Regional’s beds are needed in the area, and we must not let them just go away overnight.
The taxpayer connection is much more complicated. The owners of the hospital are the people of Adams County, not out-of-town investors.
And, since what taxpayers own is losing money, their investment is pretty much floundering.
The question becomes: How do we protect that investment and not let the hospital drag the county into the poor house?
Hospital administrators are working to file bankruptcy as a means of staving off creditors temporarily until a long-term financial plan is completed.
Much of the hospital’s long-term debt is in the form of a large bond debt, refinanced in 2006, valued at approximately $18 million.
Other debt, estimated to be in the $7 million range, includes everything from vendor bills to lines of credit at banks.
Taxpayers are on the hook to pay the $18 million in debt in two key ways. First, the bond agreement, created when the bond debt was refinanced in 2006, provides that the county must add 5 mils of ad valorem tax — that’s property tax, houses, land, cars, etc.
In addition, the agreement allows the homestead exemption money the state returns to the county to be tapped, too, if needed.
If required, the county could be forced to give up as much as $1.2 million a year to pay for the bond debt.
That’s a huge obligation.
While it may seem correct to use the home-spun logic of: “If it’s losing money, just shut it down,” it’s not really that simple.
A closed hospital generates absolutely no cash unless the facilities are sold.
And a business that’s closed or one that’s struggling under great debt likely will not generate a great purchase offer. Trying to sell a closed business also saddled with heavy debt won’t be pretty.
An operating business — even a floundering one — is easier sold than one that has completely shut down.
For the best interest of the taxpayers, Regional either needs to stay open and become better managed so that it can pay its own debt or stay open long enough to find a buyer who will pay more than the hospital owes.
So we’re not really supporting Natchez Regional — at least in the hospital warfare sense — but rather, we’re looking out for the taxpayers of Adams County.
Taxpayers don’t need to pay for someone else’s mismanagement.
Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.
Comments
Posted by Swapmeet (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 12:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I understand your point that you are looking out for us taxpayers, but I, as a taxpayer, have never been asked my opinion regarding NRMC. Not only must you take into consideration the money us taxpayers are putting into NRMC, but you also must consider our opinions on the matter. From the recent comments I have heard on these blogs and around the community, it seems to be a lot of taxpayers who are tired of seeing a hospital who feels the need to cut employees pay whenever they could be more active in collecting on deliquent accounts. I appreciate your being concerned for the taxpayers, but you must also listen to our voice as well. It's just my opinion, but I think it would be best if you beat the bushes on all sides of the issue, not just the one that supports NRMC. Thanks.
Posted by frogprincenessntz (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 1:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think some investigative reporting on the management company. Quorum, is in order. Try finding out the terms of their contract and is there any remedy included for the gross mismanagement on their part? That should be a source for paying some of the debt involved.
Posted by dangyankee (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 1:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Swapmeet:
You say, "I appreciate your being concerned for the taxpayers, but you must also listen to our voice as well." Ummm . . . aren't we the taxpayers? And isn't NRMC one of our "investments?" The editorial above says to me that "they", the ND, are listening to us.
Trouble is, most of us, myself included, don't know a whole heck of a lot about how hospitals are managed. We know bad management when we see it, as in this case (how do you go from point A, "We're making money!" to point B "We lost 25 million bucks!" in one apparently effortless motion, referencing the same fiscal year?), but we really don't know what "good management" would be.
I do know that "bottom-line managing" a hospital is different than doing the same at any other kind of business. Hospitals have to follow a whole lot of different rules than, say, Wal-Mart does, and they also have to meet a whole lot of different expectations from their customers. If you don't have the money for a Big Mac, McDonald's won't sell it to you; if you don't have the money to get your stab wound patched up, a hospital still has to do the patching up, preferably with a smile from each person involved in the patching, from the paramedic to the admitting clerk to the nurse and the anesthetist and the doctor.
The Democrat, as a community newspaper, is right to support NRMC, our community's hospital (the other one is for the rich folks, of which I ain't one, and neither are most of you, I suspect): Its patients, and its employees, and even, probably, some of its lower level management, are US--if not ourselves, our neighbors, or maybe our friends.
NRMC is NOT the dudes/dudettes currently mismanaging it, it is instead all the people who work there, some of whom, at least, are doing the best they can to care for us when we need them. So, yes, I think the Democrat is right in supporting them.
Now, if they were saying current hospital management is wonderful, I would probably take Mr. Cooper seriously to task, verbally ("Yo mama!").
Posted by Dawgs89 (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 3:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Cooper, you and the ND have the right to support whichever hospital you so desire. But when you opened your column stating that Natchez Community Hospital, the privately-owned, for-profit hospital that competes with the publicly-owned, financially drowning, NRMC, you seem to imply that NCH is in some way to blame for NRMC financial trouble. Rest assured that if NCH did not exist, NRMC would still be in the same shape they are today with their current management.
I am a proud employee of NCH, and have been for over 12 years. I work 40 hours a week and make less than $40,000 a year. So I am "your family, your friend, and your neighbor." Yes, NCH is a privately-owned hospital. This means that financial executives, local businessmen and women, and physicians run our hospital, not politicians.
It does not mean that only rich folks go there. I would be surprised to see if there is any difference in the ratios of patients that we see on medicare, medicaid, and non-insured patients as compared to NRMC. If anybody comes to our ER, we are required by law to treat that patient regardless of ability to pay. As employees, we have no way of knowing whether a patient lives in an antebellum mansion or a cardboard box. We treat everyone the same.
And yes, NCH is a for-profit hospital. What kind of socialist idiot would think that a business should not have making a profit as one of their goals. And this for-profit status requires NCH to do something that NRMC does not.....PAY TAXES. I have no idea what the exact figures are, but NCH pays huge amounts in both city and county taxes. It also employees several hundred of our citizens (who pay taxes), and spends no telling how much to local vendors, including the Natchez Democrat(well up until last week). These doctors that say they want a one hospital town, but who wants that hospital to be non-profit, for them I have a question. Do these physicians who make nearly 10 times as much as I do run their physician offices as a non-profit operation? I don't think so. These select few physicians want NRMC to survive, not because of the healthcare that it provides, or for the jobs that it creates, but rather for the continued leasing of an entire floor of their new office building. Check with some of the NRMC staff, these are the same doctors who send most of their patients to Jackson or Baton Rouge instead of admitting them to NRMC.
I sincerely hope NRMC survives. I have many friends that work there. I wish the very best for them. But I am also very proud to be an employee of NCH and HMA. Our administrators are very competent people. I am proud to work for people who have given me a merit pay raise every year of my employment. I am proud to work for a company that I don't have to worry whether my paycheck will bounce or not. I am glad that I work at NCH, so in the articles that are yet to be written concerning NRMC's financial troubles, please leave my hospital out of it. Thanks.
Posted by shedevil (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 5:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
well said dawgs89.....the first thing nrmc needs to do is get rid of the clowns on the board and hire some professionals to replace them.
Posted by unclered (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 7:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Swapmeet: Your point is well taken, but did anyone ask your opinion when they spent your tax money on Natchez Regional? We all have a vested interest in the well being of Natchez Regional because it belongs to all of us. You, I and all of the tax payers of Adams county have been investing in Natchez Regional for years.
Posted by grrbrts (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 8:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
NCH is a SHAM! Trust my word. I will not mention anyone's name, but I was injected with an unknown, to my knowledge, medication, while a nurse mocked at me. Thank God for cell phones. My sister arrived just in time to save me, so to speak, and I was released immediately.
Posted by trueblue (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 8:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
nch pays near and maybe over 400,000 a year and if i remember correctly since ip is gone it is one of the 3 largest tax payers in the county. wonder if any of that money goes to help nrmc?
Posted by DahlingILuvUButGiveMeParkAve (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 10:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
An independent auditing firm with NO links to anybody in
Natchez needs to be hired to audit the "cooked" books for the last ten years. That is taxpayer money that went down the drain and someone needs to do a proper accounting for it. It is great that Quorum was let go. Now I feel that the board and attorney need to be changed and an audit of past sins brought to light.
Posted by hopefloats (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 11:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Quorum was fired for cooking the books but they (Quorum)sent in an interim CEO( extral money) and CFO okayed by the Board of Trustees and being paid some undisclosed amount of money with Quorum not taking a paycut. Yes Quorum is still in management at Natchez Regional. Then Walter Brown hired a lawyer to handle the bankruptcy for another large amount of money i am sure. So the only cut backs or saving of the hospital has been...cut the employees pay to make payroll , not pay the vendors file bankruptcy they said they couldn't afford to sponsor Relay for Life but the employees are supporting it. The natchez democrat quoted that bond money will have to be paid back at the taxpayers expense unless natchez regional gets back on track. Taxpayers need to speak up!
Posted by trueblue (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 11:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
your probably right DahlingILuv. i have a family member that does insurance billing and she figures that they also have a problem with getting the bills out to the insurance companies which must be done to collect money. if that is the case then the audit would need to go much deeper than just the board and their attorney but to look at every level of business at nrmc. the bankruptcy will help for a little while but if they do not change practices then they will be in the same shape soon enough. i also have a family member who used to work at nrmc and one at nch. nrmc tends to lay people off or cut pay most recently where nch would cut hours when it was slow to make up the difference through the year. i am sure that nch has laid off before in the past. what employer has not had to make that tough decision in the past but i would much rather get my hours cut then to be laid off or to take a pay cut all together. my heart goes out to the employees at nrmc especially the ones that are nearing retirment.
Posted by shedevil (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 2:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
hopefloats.....thats what wrong with the hospital...they give 10000.00 on a foolish project like the walking trail,but cant sponsor a great project like the relay for life...shame on the board !!!!
Posted by rushinghjr (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 3:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Amend Shedevil!
Posted by sammohon (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 6:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
shedevil, rushinghjr...the board is made up of citizens, just like you and I, who want to do their best for Natchez and NRMC. They did hire professionals, Quorum, who apparently failed them and covered it up...let's go after the real culprits.
Posted by steve_o (anonymous) on April 6, 2008 at 8:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I, for one, am suprised that the Quoram folks have not been the subject of any reports of their overall performance of running the hospital all these years! After all, thats what they were hired to do!!!
Could it be that we werent paying attention when reports were made public? I think not!
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on April 7, 2008 at 4:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Dawgs89 don't forget they also paid 670,000.00 to have those physcians parking lot paved as well as renting the unoccupied floor...
Posted by ntztransplant17 (anonymous) on April 7, 2008 at 8:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
O.K., I wasn't going to put a dog in this hunt, BUT, I just have to say that the second floor in the physician's building IS occupied by Family Medicine Physicians (several of them) and soon, hopefully, will also house the office of a cardiologist. There are 3 floors - the first floor with Drs. Haimson & Passman, After Hours Clinic and Imaging Center; the third floor with Internal Medicine Associates (Stubbs, Daly, Mire) as well as the OB/GYN office of Dr. Frank Guedon. Just don't want everyone thinking that the second floor is sitting there empty - it isn't.
Posted by texasranger (anonymous) on April 7, 2008 at 8:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
They are taking up for NR because we know,they know,and Judge Judy knows. Whenever the words poor manangement is used. The top dogs are getting way,way too much money and not doing their jobs,but nothing ever happens to them no matter how bad they do their part.Absolutely nothing and their is also ALWAYS somebody,s hand in the cookie jar, along with a lot of legalized theft as my uncle used to say is going on.
Posted by lw2915 (anonymous) on April 7, 2008 at 3:11 p.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by bluesdad61 (anonymous) on April 7, 2008 at 7:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The Natchez medical community is just beginning to feel the despiration that many other towns and cities have been dealing with for years. It is very difficult in these uncertain times to make money in medicine. Several factors contribute to this delimma. First there is the issue of reimbursement for services provided. Every one wants great medical care but noone wants to pay for it . Insurance companies play the waiting game with hosptials and doctors hoping that the paper work will get lost so they (insurance companies)won't have to pay out. Secondly, the federal government medicare and Medicaid reimburse at around 21% on the dollar. Could you imagine your employer paying you 21 cents for every dollar you earn. Finally, hospitals are in the business of taking care of people whether the people have insurance or not. I dont know any other business that is required to work for free.
Posted by ericstratton (anonymous) on April 7, 2008 at 8:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
hey lw2915, would be interested to know what else happened at this wonderful meeting, they actually said that about payroll? was it administration
Posted by rushinghjr (anonymous) on April 7, 2008 at 11:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
(lw2915) There are only 30 in April of any year! That's is my birthday.
Posted by hopefloats (anonymous) on April 8, 2008 at 5:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
lw2915 thats what the chapter 9 bankurptcy was all about. To allow NR out of its contracts. The CEO has been reviewing contracts. Mostly with some of the doctors. And next is PERS.
Posted by lw2915 (anonymous) on April 8, 2008 at 8:46 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by lw2915 (anonymous) on April 8, 2008 at 8:51 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Post a comment (Terms of Use Policy)
(Requires free registration.)