A proposal to create a regional body to run a cooperative of independently owned Delta hospitals has advanced in the Senate, but a House committee thinks the idea needs further study.
Last week, the Senate Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Committee approved the proposal to create a Delta Regional Health Authority to take over control of any community hospital in the region that wanted to be part of a multi-hospital group rather than continuing to go it alone.
The proposal, which is being advocated by the economic development organization Delta Council, is designed to address the health-care crisis in the region that has put several hospitals at risk of closure, including most acutely Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
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Participation would be voluntary. Hospitals that join the authority would still be owned by their local governments, but they would be turning over most of the control to the authority’s board and the day-to-day management to the chief executive officer that board hires. The CEO would have the power to hire and fire, and the authority would determine what medical services are offered where.
The hospitals would continue to have their own boards as well, but their powers would be much more limited and largely determined by the regional authority’s board.
The only significant change the Senate committee made to the original proposal was to remove language that would have allowed regional health authorities to be created also in other parts of the state.
Frank Howell, CEO of Delta Council, said the committee’s chairman, Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch, “wants to focus on the Delta and work to establish what he called this pilot program.”
A companion bill in the House, however, was rewritten to instead create a 19-member task force to study the idea and make recommendations to the Legislature by Nov. 1. It was passed by that chamber’s Public Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday, the final day for legislation to come out of committee.
The task force would include representatives from Delta hospitals and other health-care entities, the Delta’s universities and community colleges, State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney or his designee, and six legislators, at least four of whom would be from the Delta.
Among the questions the task force would be asked to address is how much power to transfer from the local governing bodies of the publicly owned hospitals to the regional health authority.
When the proposal for a regional health authority was unveiled last month by Delta Council, it received a negative reaction from several Delta lawmakers, who complained they were not included in the formulation of the proposal.
Howell said the precarious condition of the region’s hospitals calls for action, not more study.
“We’ve been studying this for a long time, and there is a sense of urgency,” he said. “I think that a task force is just kicking the can down the road, and we don’t have time in the Delta to kick the can down the road.”
The Senate and House bills now advance for consideration by their full respective chambers.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
