INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A signed-and-delivered Indigent Care Agreement between the Hospital District and Indian River Medical Center appeared imminent last Thursday, after District trustees approved the latest draft.
Medical center attorney Bill Stewart said a major sticking point had been overcome, and he hoped the hospital board would approve the draft.
“We’ll all be happy to have this over with.”
The sticking point that a majority of District trustees agreed to omit from the three-year pact was a sentence saying that the Hospital District “must be able to modify the contract upon 12 months’ notice to the hospital.”
What that means is that negotiations over future indigent care agreements could drag on for years. The current draft does not include the language the District wanted that says it can quit negotiating – or “modify the contract” and unilaterally decide on annual reimbursement amounts for the hospital – if no agreement is reached between the parties.
“Getting that modification language out was a big deal and I think we’re headed for agreement,” said Stewart.
“I hate to see us locked into something long-term,” said District Trustee Jim Seaton.
“If a future agreement is not negotiated, we have no way of getting out,” said District Chairman Tom Spackman.
But four of the seven District trustees agreed to omit the modification language in order to get the current draft approved by the hospital.
Further, all seven District trustees acknowledged that the draft about to be approved makes it clear that the decision of how much money the hospital gets is in the hands of the District, not the hospital, which is an improvement over the previous agreement.
“We have the obligation to make sure the taxpayers decide and it is our responsibility to represent them,” said Spackman.
The new agreement also requires the hospital to be more transparent with the District about hospital finances.
