NATCHEZ — The next step for bankrupt Natchez Regional Medical Center should be decided today in federal court.

Judge Neil P. Olack will preside over the hospital bankruptcy plan confirmation hearing beginning at 9 a.m. at the U.S. Courthouse on Pearl Street in Natchez.

Natchez Regional filed a Chapter 9 bankruptcy in March after months of attempting to find a buyer for the county-owned hospital.

Earlier this month, Community Health Systems, based in Franklin, Tenn., purchased the hospital, pending approval of the bankruptcy court.

CHS owns Natchez Community Hospital and owns or manages more than 200 other hospitals across the country.

The bankruptcy attorneys and creditors have agreed upon a plan that must be confirmed by the judge for the proceeding to move forward.

The plan includes a two-year payback of unsecured creditors. The last financial forecast filed with the bankruptcy court suggested those creditors would receive approximately 58 cents for each dollar they are owed. But that number could go up or down depending upon how well the hospital’s bankruptcy plan is realized.

The county owns the hospital and provides financial security to both the hospital’s $14 million bond as well as a $3 million loan required to help provide enough cash to allow the hospital sale to be completed. Additional cash is needed in part to help pay the attorney fees related to the bankruptcy, pay off a secured loan to United Mississippi Bank and to provide a $4 million escrow fund to handle any additional liabilities that may arise after the sale is consummated.

If Judge Olack, chief judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Mississippi, approves the bankruptcy plan, the hospital will be sold to CHS effective at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.

If Olack does not confirm the bankruptcy plan, the future is uncertain. The hospital’s bankruptcy plan suggested the hospital would close if the plan was not approved and the sale did not go through.

NRMC opened in 1960 as Jefferson Davis Memorial Hospital. Its $2.4 million construction was underwritten by an $800,000 local contribution and state and federal funds.

It has been financially independent since 1974 and does not receive tax support, but is backed by a 5-mill standby tax that the Mississippi Development Bank required the hospital to get in 2006 when it asked for the MDB to reissue its revenue bond.

The hospital board of trustees announced in February its intention to declare bankruptcy, citing at the time a $3 million deficit between financial assets and liabilities.