The Leflore County Board of Supervisors wants to see if another medical institution might be interested in leasing Greenwood Leflore Hospital.
The board voted unanimously Tuesday to put out another request for proposals for an outside entity to take over the operation of the financially troubled hospital.
Robert Collins, president of the board, said afterward that the idea to readvertise for bids was discussed during a closed-door session last week of the hospital board that was attended by several county and Greenwood officials.
Collins said the City Council and hospital board are expected to vote in favor of readvertising as well.
The hospital, which is jointly owned by the city and county, is at risk of closing after several years of multimillion-dollar losses, exacerbated by the financial difficulties created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hospital had been counting on a takeover by the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the only entity to submit a lease proposal in response to the Greenwood hospital’s solicitation this past summer.
After months of negotiation, however, UMMC backed away in November, saying it was no longer interested in a lease. That left hospital and local government officials scrambling to come up with another way to keep the 116-year-old hospital open.
Collins said the previous request for proposals was written to favor UMMC and did not give other potentially interested parties a fair chance.
He suggested that reviving the bid process would be another avenue to pursue if ongoing efforts to maintain the hospital as an independent entity are not successful.
In the short term, the hospital is being aided by a commitment from the city and county of around $4 million combined, including about a half-million dollars in free utilities.
In the long term, the hospital is hoping that Mississippi lawmakers will vote, during the legislative session that begins next week, to increase Medicaid funding for rural hospitals.
The Greenwood hospital is also pursuing designation as a “critical access hospital,” which would bring higher reimbursements from Medicare.
Since 75% of the hospital’s patients are covered by one or both of the government insurance programs, getting higher payments from them is essential to its continued viability, hospital officials have said.
Nevertheless, Collins said, there needs to be a fallback plan, including putting the idea of a takeover back on the table.
“If the Legislature thing doesn’t go through, or we can’t do something else, maybe somebody will be interested in leasing us after March, or maybe May or June,” Collins said. “We’re just trying to do everything we possibly can to keep everything going.”
- Contact Katherine Parker at 662-581-7239 or kparker@gwcommonwealth.com.
