The Montgomery County Commission discussed joining the Montgomery City Council to help Jackson Hospital and Clinic stay open.
The commission will consider a resolution to loan the financially troubled hospital $10 million at their next meeting on Oct. 21.
Jackson Hospital and Clinic has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Hospital representatives have asked local governments and the state to loan the hospital $150 million to deal with infrastructure needs. The Montgomery County Commission has been asked to loan the hospital $10 million.
Commissioner Justin Castanza said that the commission met with a contingent from Jackson Hospital along with Montgomery city officials and representatives from Gov. Kay Ivey’s office.
Castanza echoed the concerns of Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed about using public money to bailout a privately owned organization.
“The proposal is: that Jackson Hospital survives, or it doesn’t,” Castanza said of the loan request. “That’s really what this comes down to. And if there is anybody who thinks that a member of this commission wants to spend taxpayer dollars on a private entity, then you’re mistaken.”
Castanza said, “We’ve been put in a situation where we’re cleaning up somebody else’s mess at the risk of damaging our city (and) the healthcare infrastructure. This is a pretty non-negotiable situation that we found ourselves in.”
He encouraged support for the hospital because closing one of the city’s two hospitals could upend the local healthcare landscape. He blamed the situation on mismanagement and “fiscal irresponsibility.”
He said waiting for an outside company to buy the hospital isn’t an option. Of 200 potential buyers, only two were interested, and only one had the money to buy the troubled hospital.
Commissioner Carmen Moore-Ziegler concurred with Castanza and requested that a resolution to fund Jackson be put on the agenda for the next meeting on Oct. 21.
Commissioner Isiaha Sankey pointed out that Rick Jackson of Jackson Healthcare, whose parent company Jackson Investment Group provided a loan to the hospital, would receive 14% interest on the proposed $20 million loan.
Commission Chair Doug Singleton said Jackson told him that the percentage would go down and would put more money into the hospital to hold off a forecasted deficient. He also said that Jackson cannot legally make money from the hospital because it is a nonprofit, but his group will manage the loan for a fee.
If the resolution passes, the transfer of money would depend on getting agreements on how the money will be spent and on state and local entities pitching in.
He added that if a transfer is approved, the money would go into an escrow account until the other entities approved their own transfers.
Singleton stated that he will abstain from voting on the issue because his daughter works as a registered nurse at Jackson.
The Montgomery City Council meets at 5 p.m. every first and third Tuesday of the month at City Hall on 103 North Perry Street. Recordings of meetings can be found on YouTube and Facebook. Agendas can be found here.
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