Friendly fire

With the threat of a hospital district tax looming larger, a bank account growing smaller, and a belief that the county may be due a refund for decades of inmate care, the longstanding relationship between the county and Lake Granbury Medical Center could sustain injury.

County Judge Ron Massingill, who was a Dallas divorce lawyer before running for county judge here, believes the county might be due a “settlement” from the hospital and its parent company, Community Health Systems, Inc., though he noted that he has no desire to file a lawsuit.

The money is badly needed since a nest egg created when a contract was signed between the county and CHSI in 1996 now has far less padding than it used to.

Massingill believes that the contract’s wording indicates that indigent county jail inmates should have been folded all along into the health care provided by LGMC to the county’s indigent population.

Instead, the county has footed the bill every time an inmate has needed medical attention.

The monthly health care cost for indigent inmates is now about $48,000 per month, or $576,000 per year, according to Massingill.

Added to the $218,000 the county pays to LGMC every year for indigent care, that brings the total to almost $800,000.

The cost is getting to be untenable. Only $5.1 million remains of the county’s nest egg.

“We’re going to have to do something,” Massingill said at last week’s meeting of the Hood County Hospital District board.

At the rate things are going, the judge said, a hospital district tax will need to be imposed on local taxpayers within a couple of years “if we don’t stop the bleeding.”

Massingill stressed that his efforts to clarify the contract are not an indictment of the hospital.

Massingill and all four of the county’s commissioners are members of the Hood County Hospital District board.

Other members include: Christy Massey, a registered nurse; David Kuban, a doctor of osteopathic medicine; J.C. Campbell, a former city councilman who is active in the community; and David Fischer, Hood County’s Republican Party chair, who was recently tapped by Massingill to replace an ailing board member.

Last week, the board voted in favor of Massingill’s request to spend $5,000 for an expert opinion on the contract provided by attorney Elizabeth Fraley, an associate professor of law at Baylor University Law School.

Kuban was the only member who voted against the judge’s recommendation.

VITAL TO COMMUNITY

According to Dixie Lee Hedgecock, LGMC’s public information officer, the hospital has funded more than $80 million in expansion and building projects across the community and has recruited dozens of new physicians.

About 10 years ago, LGMC established Lake Granbury Family Practice to provide services for indigent patients and others, she said.

Hedgecock pointed out that LGMC is one of Hood County’s top employers.

“In 1997, LGMC employed about 235 people, and now provides approximately 700 jobs,” she wrote in an email to the HCN.

Hedgecock further stated that LGMC has fulfilled its contractual obligations with the county “and will continue to do so.”

Massingill, Campbell and Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle indicated during the Hospital District board meeting that reviewing the contract is an important step before imposing a new tax.

“We can report back to our constituents that we have done our due diligence,” Eagle said, adding, “I don’t think there’s any desire to get into big lawsuits or anything like that.”

Kuban responded, “Nobody wins in that deal.”

kcruz@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 258