Greenwood Leflore Hospital has officially decided to pursue “critical access” designation in hopes that it will fend off the hospital’s possible closure.
The hospital board voted unanimously during a closed-door, special-called meeting Tuesday to authorize the administration to pursue the designation, which would significantly increase the hospital’s Medicare reimbursements.
The designation is considered an essential piece in the financially troubled hospital’s survival plan. About half of the Greenwood hospital’s patient mix is insured by Medicare, the government program for the elderly. As a critical access hospital, Greenwood Leflore could expect to receive $11 million to $14 million more a year in Medicare reimbursements, according to the hospital’s estimates.
To qualify for the designation, the hospital is indefinitely mothballing more than three-fourths of the 208 beds for which it had been licensed by the Mississippi State Department of Health. The bulk of these beds have not been utilized in decades.
As of Wednesday, the hospital will be licensed for 25 acute care beds and 10 rehabilitation beds, which are within the maximum threshold for a critical access hospital.
A bigger obstacle will be the regulation that says a critical access hospital cannot be within 35 miles of another hospital.
There are at least three hospitals located less than 35 miles from Greenwood’s.
Gary Marchand, the interim CEO of Greenwood Leflore Hospital, said he anticipates the hospital’s application will be initially denied by federal regulators because of the distance requirement. At that point the hospital, with the help of its congressional delegation, would seek a waiver from the rule.
The hospital’s attorneys, according to Marchand, have been communicating with the staff of U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, in whose district the hospital is located, to set up a meeting to discuss the strategy for seeking a waiver from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Last year at a public forum in Greenwood, Thompson said he has helped in the past two other hospitals receive such a waiver and that he would be willing to do the same for Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
Marchand anticipates the meeting with the congressman’s staff could take place within the next week or two.
He estimated that it would be late summer to early fall before the final outcome of the hospital’s application for critical access status is known.
If the designation is granted, the hospital could conceivably reopen its intensive care unit, its labor and delivery unit or both, Marchand said. The two units were shut down last year in a series of cost-cutting moves the hospital implemented to stay solvent.
“I think (the designation) would open up the possibility for us to revisit the service lines that we closed,” he said.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
