Governor's Move Could Damage Local Health Care

WNEG AM630 RADIO 3/23/2010

With health care at the top of the current headlines a local headline could easily be pushed to the proverbial back burner and that would be detrimental to many small hospitals in the state of Georgia including our own…Stephens County Hospital.

According to the story last week, Governor Sonny Perdue has proposed cutting Medicaid payments by 10.25 percent across the board and eliminating the sales tax exemption for not-for-profit hospitals as a way to make up projected budget shortfalls and increase state revenues. Stephens County Administrator Ed Gambrell believes that this could devastate and trigger the closing of many hospitals that rely heavily on Medicaid and the sales tax exemption for their bottom line. He cited that the new MRI machine recently purchased at Stephens County Hospital would have cost an additional $105,000 in sales tax without the exemption. He went on to say that if these cuts take place the hospital would have to either cut services or staff to survive, or just close-and this from a hospital that has been well run and operated without the debt that many hospitals face! This decision would be a death knell for them. Many hospitals, especially in rural Georgia counties, won’t stand a chance.

One of the interesting aspects of this is that the Governor can make this decision without approval of the State House or Senate. In other words, he has the power to cripple these hospitals and then move on to his ranch or wherever at the end of his term.

The Governor’s decision, as well as the upcoming decision on Stephens County Hospital’s appeal of the location of Ty Cobb Hospital in Lavonia, will have much to do with the viability of one of Stephens County’s largest employers and could be damaging to the success of the institution for many years to come. We encourage you to write or call the Governor’s office and voice your concerns that these cuts will be damaging to our local health care, and right now, especially this week, that should be something that he should definitely understand.