Stephens County Hospital Takes Out Loan To Pay For Insurance

10/21/2008

The Stephens County Hospital Authority prepares to pay its insurance bill.

At Monday’s Authority meeting, board members voted to authorize hospital administrator Ed Gambrell to take out a loan to pay the insurance costs up front, then repay the bank in payments.

“We could, I guess, pay it straight from cash,” said Gambrell. “However, we get favorable rates from the banks here in town. So, we generally get a line of credit. The way it works is we pay so much each month over the next 12 months on that.”

Gambrell said the $372,000 loan from Habersham Bank covers all the various kinds of insurance that a hospital uses, except workers’ compensation. He said this is how the hospital has operated in past years.

“The purpose of it is to pay for our insurance for the year that started October 1 and that is the start of our insurance year also,” he added. “It finances our malpractice coverage, our automobile coverage, crime coverage, and property coverage.”

In addition to the loan issue, the authority heard reports from staff on the personal care homes and the safety report.

Finally, the authority re-approved the hospital’s compliance plan, which was written in 2004.