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Even though the 179-bed Natchez Regional Medical Center (NRMC) has authority from the state to file under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the facility is considering all options at this point.

“That would be the last thing the board and I want to do, but that option is available,” said Sen. Bob Dearing, D-Natchez. “It is a beautiful facility and means so much to the community.”

Dearing was instrumental with getting a bill through the state legislature to allow the publicly-owned hospital to file under Chapter 9, a seldom used section of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. It provides protection from creditors for a financially distressed public body while a plan for adjusting those debts is developed and negotiated. The bill was passed and the governor signed it on March 31. The hospital is owned by Adams County; the county provides no monetary support.

Hospital board attorney and designated spokesman Walter Brown said NRMC is carrying debts of about $4.5 million, which it cannot pay.

“In the past, the county has not needed to provide support, but may have to in the future. We are determined to survive and provide quality care for this area,” he said. “We are weighing all options now. My outlook is positive and so is the board’s. For better or worse, we have the catalyst to improve. This may bring the community together on health services to lower costs. We’ve got to try to convince others to work with us on this situation.”

Brown and Dearing say financial problems stem from the amount of uncompensated care the facility provides and the amount of facility competition in the area. There are three hospitals within a short distance for the community of approximately 65,000 residents.

“We’ve lost business — about 1,600 manufacturing jobs in a two-year period, and a lot of people go to the emergency room for their doctor,” Dearing said.

Last year alone, NMRC had $8 million in uncompensated care. “About a third of these folks can’t pay, a third try to pay, and a third just don’t pay,” Brown said. “But, the principal problem is the number of hospitals in the Natchez area. We’ve got to make some changes and be more aggressive.”

The Mississippi Hospital Association will not be involved with whatever proceedings NRMC takes but is concerned with the problems facing the state’s healthcare facilities.

“Fifty of our state’s hospitals (43 percent) currently operate at a zero or negative profit margin,” said MHA executive director Sam Cameron. “With the growing number of uninsured in our state and decreases in funding proposed at both state and national levels, this will only get worse.”

As competition has grown in Natchez, there have been cutbacks at NRMC, but Brown says the hospital will continue to provide such services as emergency room care and obstetrics as part of the service to the community even though they do not make money. The diminishment in state and federal reimbursements is also hurting the public facility.

The hospital’s service area draws from the Mississippi counties of Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Wilkerson and Amite and two Louisiana parishes across the river. A number of the towns in these counties have 25-bed hospitals that are federally subsidized.

“As a larger hospital, we don’t qualify for these federal funds,” Brown said. “But, these facilities provide a valuable service for us because they send patients to us.”

He also named several other Mississippi towns of comparable size to Natchez that have only one hospital, thus not dividing market share. In addition to NRMC, Adams County’s only municipality is home to Natchez Community Hospital, a 100-bed, for-profit facility. There’s also a boutique specialty hospital across the river in Louisiana that was started by some physicians on the staff of NRMC.
“For years, Natchez Regional was the main, leading hospital of this area,” Brown said. “As a community, we should have a collaborative effort on providing equipment and services. We owe a duty to try to maintain Natchez Regional as a public institution. It’s where many of us were born, our children were born and we’ve received care.”

He added that NRMC would be making some changes, including management, but declined to disclose details.



May 2008

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