Despite contract changes that were supposed to ease the flow of taxpayer dollars to the state's largest safety net hospital, Grady Memorial Hospital Corp. is still having trouble proving that Fulton County's money goes to treat Fulton's needy patients.
So far this year, the county has withheld $3.9 million in payments because the hospital still can't show that some of its Fulton patients meet income and eligibility requirements.
The Fulton County Commission voted Wednesday to widen the pool of qualified patients, adding indigent and uninsured patients who seek emergency room care.
The move came seven months after the board adopted recommendations by an ad hoc committee that were supposed to iron out the precise definition of a Fulton needy patient. Chairman John Eaves also tried to get the $3.9 million paid, but he withdrew his motion after Commissioner Joan Garner said she wasn't ready to give her approval, leaving him short of the four required votes.
The board issued another dressing down from two of the hospital's most vocal critics, Commissioners Emma Darnell and Bill Edwards.
Darnell once again chastised the hospital for closing neighborhood clinics and paying six-figure executive salaries. Edwards criticized his colleagues for continuing to placate the hospital when it doesn't live up to contractual terms.
"That's taxpayer money that should go in the general fund somewhere," he said. "[Grady] didn't earn it."
But Edwards and Darnell again found themselves outnumbered on the issue. Most commissioners have said that the mission of Grady is too important to hold up funding over technicalities.
"There's no doubt we owe the money," Commissioner Tom Lowe said. "It does not make sense for the board to sit here smug."
The withholding comes amid painful financial times for the hospital. Grady is expected to lose $23 million this year following a nearly $20 million cut in government funding to care for the poor and uninsured.
The hospital has eliminated more than 200 jobs and closed two neighborhood clinics, among other cost-cutting measures.
The commission budgeted an allocation of $52.2 million to the hospital this year, to be paid in quarterly installments, but then negotiations on how to subtract federal indigent care funds from the county's payments came to an impasse.
A 2009 agreement, put in place after the near financial collapse of the hospital and the subsequent transferal of control to the corporate board, requires proof that all Fulton tax dollars go to treating Fulton indigent and uninsured patients. Disputes over those stipulations caused $9.9 million to be withheld from the hospital last year and more than $4 million withheld the year before, although the board later in both cases voted to pay the money.
Earlier this year at Eaves' urging, the commission formed an ad hoc committee composed of county, Grady and Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority representatives to find way to avoid future payment holdups.
County Manager Zachary Williams said the authority and the hospital agreed to the changes approved Wednesday.
About the Author
