[StBernard] St. Bernard Hospital CEO tries to sell Parish Council on hospital millage's merits

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Hospital CEO tries to sell Parish Council on hospital millage's
merits

Print Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Benjamin
Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on January 21, 2014 at 7:21 PM, updated January 21, 2014 at 7:22 PM

Trying to explain the merits of a proposed St. Bernard Parish Hospital
Service District millage that will go in front of parish voters in April,
the hospital's interim CEO Wayne Landry on Tuesday told the Parish Council
that the hospital "is postured to be a huge success for the people of St.
Bernard."

"If the millage does not pass, the hospital will continue to operate -- it
will just not get profits enough to keep up in the future," Landry said.

The parish Hospital Service District will ask parish voters on April 5 to
approve a one-time 30-mill tax that would bring in about $9 million to the
hospital.

Those 30 mills would cost a homestead-exempt owner of a $150,000 home about
$225 more for that tax year. 

"This millage is not to save the hospital (assuming the affordable care act
doesn't hurt it too bad)," according to a statement Landry emailed to
NOLA.com | Times-Picayune later Tuesday afternoon. "The hospital can
continue to operate without it. Naturally, without it there will not be the
ability to acquire all of the specialists needed to be a full service
hospital, and cause years of time in order to generate funds to slowly
develop the hospital into a full service facility."

That four-page statement goes on to say that the millage would be used to
create a better medical billing system "for not only improved patient
safety, but will make the facility more efficient and provide for a faster
and more accurate billing process."

The St. Bernard Council agreed at its meeting earlier this month to put the
millage proposal on the April ballot, but at that meeting, most council
members made it clear that they were skeptical about whether the nonprofit
hospital should receive more money.

On Tuesday, after Landry's comments, the Parish Council declined to adopt a
resolution that would have allowed the Hospital Service District to receive
$5 million in revenue anticipation notes "for the purpose of paying the
costs of current operations for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2014."

Landry said the Hospital Service District was asking to receive that $5
million only if voters approved the 30-mill tax. But, the proposed
resolution's language did not specify that.

Landry also told the council that the $5 million would be used only toward
certain hospital expenses, such as hiring specialists and developing a new
medical billing system. But again, the resolution did not state those
restrictions.

The resolution did state that the Hospital Service District would have to
pay back the revenue anticipation notes by March 2019, a late date that was
questioned by many of the council members, considering that if the millage
passes, the hospital should get the $9 million in tax money by early 2015.

Council members on Tuesday said they would approve the resolution if it
comes back in front of them with revised language spelling out an earlier
timetable on repayment, and restrictions on spending.

Soon after his talk to the council, Landry emailed a statement describing
the millage's benefits and touting the hospital's success since it opened in
the fall of 2012.

"I certainly understand if someone cannot afford this one-time millage,"
Landry said in that statement. "And if they cannot, they shouldn't vote for
this.

"If they can, then they can vote yes knowing that they will be assisting to
contribute potentially in excess of $10 million a year in economic impact
for St. Bernard generating more health care jobs, while at the same time
guaranteeing that all of their medical specialty needs will be met right
here in their own parish," Landry continued. "It will strengthen the
hospital and our parish.

"The hospital board has brought this measure for the people to decide on
after exhausting all potential sources of monies to take the hospital to a
complete full service facility."