Thursday, April 18, 2024
The Hood County Hospital District has been awarded almost $480,000 in attorneys’ fees as part of its lawsuit against Lake Granbury Medical Center and its parent company.
Now that a dispute regarding medical care for inmates has been settled, the hospital district stands to save about $100,000 per year, according to an attorney who has represented the county in the case.
The disagreement that led to the lawsuit involved the contract for indigent health care services that has been in place since 1996.
The hospital district has been paying for those services but has been billed separately for care given to inmates at the Hood County Jail, many of whom meet the indigency requirements to be assigned court-appointed attorneys.
In the view of County Judge Ron Massingill, who serves on the Hood County Hospital District board along with the four commissioners who make up the Commissioners Court, the fact that courts consider the inmates indigent should mean that they fall under the umbrella of medical services that the county already pays for under the contract.
Massingill reviewed the contract shortly after taking office in 2019 and came to believe, as did others on the board, that the county had been wrongfully charged for inmate care during all the years the contract had been in place.
When hospital officials disagreed with that assessment, the board pursued legal remedies, filing a lawsuit in January 2020.
Board members noted at the time that a settlement or a win in court could replenish the diminishing nest egg that has been used to cover indigent healthcare for the county since the contract was first initiated.
They also hoped that recouped money could delay the need to impose a hospital district tax. With the county growing and the nest egg diminishing, the threat of such a tax is looming larger.
Last spring, the hospital district prevailed in the lawsuit, but not on every allegation raised in its petition.
Both sides claimed a measure of victory.
Citing statute of limitations issues, 355th District Judge Bryan Bufkin ruled that the county was due $125,000. That figure represented only a portion of what the hospital district board had hoped to collect.
The hearing regarding attorney’s fees took place on Wednesday, Aug. 17.
There were two attorneys representing the hospital district board and three representing the defendants: Community Health Systems, Inc.; Granbury Hospital Corporation d/b/a Lake Granbury Medical Center; and Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation d/b/a Lakeside Physicians.
The hospital district board’s attorneys — Elizabeth Fraley, an associate professor of law at Baylor University Law School, and David Deaconson of the Waco-based Pakis, Giotes, Page & Burleson law firm — detailed approximately $480,000 in billable hours related to the lawsuit.
An attorney at the defendants’ table told Bufkin that he believed $250,000-$300,000 was a more “reasonable” amount.
Bufkin ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the defendants to pay $479,109.86 in attorneys’ fees.
The court proceedings concluded shortly before 12:30 p.m.
Fraley told the Hood County News that the combined total due the hospital district was not yet known because interest would be calculated and added for both the trial award and attorney’s fees.
Attorneys for the defendants declined to comment, as did LGMC spokesman Tom Jensen.
