Part of the deal to keep the Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center open included having the Coahoma County Board of Supervisors use money from their reserve funds twice in November to pay employees.
The supervisors wired $1,239,565 on Nov. 5 to Curae Health Inc. to meet a pay period two weeks later. The supervisors reconvened on Nov. 14 intending to wire the final payment before Community Health Systems takes over the hospital Dec. 10 until a buyer is found.
Things did not work as smoothly at the Nov. 14 meeting as supervisor Derrell Washington wanted a breakdown of where all the money was going. The board met again on Monday morning with board attorney Tom Ross showing, after all employee payments were made in November, $2,343,208.52 would have been spent from the hospital reserve fund since Aug. 30.
After seeing the breakdown, the supervisors unanimously voted to wire Curae Health Inc. $954,784.17 to meet the next payroll and keep the hospital open.
“We want to know where the $1.3 million is going, who it’s going to,” said Washington during the Nov. 14 meeting. “We need more information than what they’re giving us.”
Supervisor Johnny Newson concurred, saying there was a need for as much information as possible.
“For one, you’re going to reconcile in two weeks, you need that information, Tom,” he said.
Washington acknowledged the supervisors were provided little information when $1,239,565 was taken from the reserve fund on Nov. 5, but he wanted a better idea on how the money was being spent.
“I think we should be privy to that if money is coming out of Coahoma County taxpayers,” Washington said. “I’m not willing to give another dime until we get that. If it’s got to be put on hold, then it’s got to be put on hold.”
Newson said there should not be a problem getting information.
“We want transparency,” he said. “We’re spending the taxpayers’ money. We need for it to be accounted for because the citizens are holding us accountable.”
Washington said the amount of money being wired should be a reasonable estimate of what Curae Health Inc. needs.
Ross explained the money had to be wired by Nov. 5 and Nov. 19 for employees to continue working.
“They weren’t going to work unless they knew the money was going to be there to pay them,” Ross said.
Washington emphasized he did not have a problem with spending the money.
“Once they prove it, if it’s $2 million every two weeks, I’ll vote for $2 million every two weeks,” he said.
Ross said for the money to be wired to Curae Health Inc., the board had to unanimously approve the action.
Spending money from the reserve fund going forward was also discussed Monday.
A payment of $31,857.02 was made from the reserve fund to the consulting firm Trilogy Healthcare Solutions on Oct. 30.
“We still need Trilogy, I think, just to kind of oversee it and every three months or so to say, ‘This is good. This is good. This is good, but you all might want to be a little concerned about this,’” board president Paul Pearson said.
Newson stressed the importance of keeping the hospital open following Monday’s meeting.
“We want the constituents to know — when we say constituents, we’re talking about the entire Coahoma County community — that we’re doing all we can to do all it can to make sure the hospital stays open,” he said. “The board voted unanimously on that.”
