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Funding of $40.6 Shot in the Arm to “Safety Net” Provider

After threatening to close the Emergency Department at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis (The MED) earlier this year if the county-owned hospital could not secure $32 million in additional funds, the Board of Directors got a $40.6 million shot in the arm from new annual local and federal funds.

The MED Board made the recommendation to shutter the department last October and turned over the matter to Shelby County’s Board of Commissioners, who recently secured $30 million in federal funds to match the $10 million in extra funding the commission included in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2011. The recurring annual payment, provided as long as the county pledges the additional $10 million in funding, is part of a 3-to-1 match from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from monies set aside to fund public hospitals.

With the additional $10 million, the county will cover roughly $37 million of the hospital’s $300 million annual budget.

At the first meeting last December of the 23-member task force, appointed in November to come up with solutions to The MED’s revenue crisis, Shelby County Commissioner Mike Ritz pointed to Tennessee as the primary culprit for failing to pay its share to The MED. Even though The MED generates more than $80 million in federal funding for the state, it receives less than half that. Studying the federal funding formula moved to the top of the task force agenda.

“We’d like to get a bigger piece of that pie,” said Shelby County Mayor Joe Ford at the time. “If we were getting the money that should be coming to us, we’d have enough to cover the budget shortfall and begin construction of a new hospital. But right now, the state uses the formula that divides the money between the poor counties throughout Tennessee.”

Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), a member of the Shelby County Commission that voted 31 years ago to establish The MED, helped facilitate the additional federal monies.

Calling the organization “lean and efficient” and adding “we’re trying to keep it that way,” Reginald Coopwood, CEO of The MED, said the extra funds wouldn’t be applied to rehiring personnel for the more than 300 jobs trimmed in recent years. Coopwood took over as leader of The MED on March 1, the same day The MED’s contract ended with FTI Cambio, a consulting firm that provided interim management and proposed cost-cutting strategies during the hospital’s fiscal crisis.

Tags:

Reginald Coopwood., Shelby County Commission, Shelby County Mayor Joe Ford, Steve Cohen, The MED, The Regional Medical Center at Memphis

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