MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE WALKER COUNTY HOSPITAL DISTRICT
August 22, 2018
STATE OF TEXAS X
COUNTY OF WALKER X
The Board of Managers of the Walker County Hospital District, Walker County, Texas met in a regular session, open to the public, Wednesday, August 22, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. at Huntsville Memorial Hospital, Huntsville, Texas.
Members of the Board present included:
Chairman, Anne Woodard
Vice Chairman, Judy Emmett
Secretary, Jerry Larrison
Manager, Curtis Montgomery
Manager, David Toronjo
Also in attendance were: Keli Molina, WCHD Administrative Assistant; Ralph Beaty, Office Administrator and numerous guests on our sign in sheet attached.
Agenda Item #1: Call meeting to order.
Chairman Anne Woodard called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.
Agenda Item #2: Consider approving the minutes for the meeting held on July 25, 2018.
Mrs. Emmett made a motion to approve the minutes for the meeting with a request from Dr. Toronjo to add the Attorney General letter he gave the board members at this July 25, 2018 regular board meeting. The motion was seconded by Dr. Montgomery. The motion passed by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #3: Comments from the public. If you wish to address the Board of Managers, please register prior to the meeting being called to order.
Dr. Wells EMS Medical Director stated that regarding the problem of paying of our bills, this is the Indigent Care Bills and the Jail Indigent bills. He said over the years the EMS had an agreement with the WCHD to cover half of the Medicaid rate for the EMS transfers and ambulance calls. Dr. Wells stated that up until a few years ago the WCHD were writing our checks and they were sent in on time every month paid in full. He said a few years ago the WCHD started sending HMH the funds to pay the EMS for the Indigent Care Services provided and they have been getting further and further behind. Dr. Wells stated there are 108 calls they have not been paid and some go back to 2016 thru 2018, the last payment we received was in May 2018 for $1400.00. The EMS is funded by the County and we just need to know why we aren’t being paid? Dr. Wells thanked the board for their time and effort.
Michael Morgan HMH CEO told Dr. Wells he would look into why they were not being paid and he said he would be glad to meet with him and go over the billing and see what could be done. Michael Morgan stated that HMH is behind to vendors but they are paying what they can and this is why they are looking for HMH a capital partner. Dr. Wells said he would come by and meet with Michael Morgan.
Wade Thibodeaux, Walker County Press stated he was one of the two parties who submitted the Open records request. He said he was confused on why he hasn’t had a response from the Attorney General. Janice Davis Attorney with Bracewell stated the Attorney General had combined your request with Donna Pinon’s Request. The letter the Attorney General sent to Donna Pinon’s request did not have a response to the 90 Day Letter. The Attorney General had thought they had copied you but they did not.
Janice Davis said the Attorney General has realized there is some confusion on the two Open records requested and they are working on yours now. Wade Thibodeaux said he was confused by Dr. Toronjo’s letter he brought to the meeting by the Attorney General’s office.
Rich Heiland, Walker County News Today and I would like to ask a question regarding the specific litigations pending, what exactly is the pending litigation on the Executive Session. He asked if it was a real estate matter and if not he asked how do you define the Executive Session regarding the legal issues related to communications, administrative matters, and District policies on this Agenda. Chairman Anne Karr-Woodard stated we were just told something recently the Corporation would like to do and it greatly impacts a lot of things like the Lease & Operating Agreement and we need to get some privilege information on how to handle all of this.
Agenda Item #4: Comments and reports from managers and HMH administration
Michael Morgan stated he would give out the Financials at the HMH Board Meeting tomorrow at their meeting. He stated all the outside clinics have been closed and the equipment has been moved back to HMH. The Riverside clinic will be closed at the end of this month, and we are in the process of moving all of those patients to the HMH Clinic out at the Copper tops. HMH have right sized all of the departments within the hospital and have reduced the administrative office by 40%. We have increased the number of patient advocates we had in the ER Department. We have been working very hard and are having some really good results in the ER. HMH had one night that was standing room only in the ER and we had 6 patients to leave because we were so busy. We have been working on accurate coding in the hospital. This is the first month of the new fiscal year for HMH, and there is a 10.7% increase. The length of stay has gone down some by 2%, we are having sicker patients right now. Newborn delivers where down from last year but the nurse practitioner will be starting soon and will be accepting Medicaid. For the last two years we have lost over four and a half million dollars a year in Medicaid reimbursements to the hospital because we didn’t have enough Medicaid patients going thru the hospital. Inpatient surgeries are up12.9 %, ER visits are up slightly up from last year. Michael Morgan also stated the hospital paid FTE’s have been reduced by 12%, Physician Organization paid FTE’s have been reduced by 43%. Dr. Toronjo said he had one question the district received a bill on May 31, 2018 for the roof and I was under the impression the Lease & Operating Agreement where such that the operating company was responsible for the repairing. Michael Morgan said that was correct but HMH did not have the funds to pay for the roof repair, he said the hospital is behind on a lot of vendors. Chairman Anne Woodard stated we met as a board and discussed paying for the roof. Ralph Beaty stated the roof was repaired prior to March 1st of HMP coming in and about sixty days ago there was a bad leak from the weather and HMH called the vendor to repair thru warranty but HMH still owed the roof company a remaining $150,000.00 so a decision was made for WCHD to pay the balance out of the contingency fund and there was a 10% late fee added. The district paid the balance of $160,000.00 and it has been booked as a receivable from the corporation to the district. As the Land Lord we felt it would be wise to fix our building instead of letting the building leak and deteriorate. Mr. Morgan said at the same time a cooling tower had gone out as well. The district did send out an invoice to HMH to be reimbursed.
Agenda Item #5: Executive Session. Adjournment to closed session, which is necessary and authorized by Section 551.001 et seq., specifically Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code (the Open Meetings Act).The District Managers will meet with attorneys to ask questions and receive attorney-client privileged information from the District’s attorneys related to:
- Pending litigation matters,
- Matters related to the potential sale or lease of District real estate, including the Ella Smither property and the hospital facility,
- Legal issues related to communications, administrative matters, and District policies.
Agenda Item #6: Reconvene in open meeting.
Agenda Item #7: Receive 2019 budget request.
There were no additional budget requests presented for consideration.
Agenda Item #8: 2019 Budget Workshop
During the 2019 Workshop Session the budget was discussed and no changes were made.
Agenda Item #9: Conduct a public budget hearing for 2019 budget.
The 2019 budget hearing was conducted with no comments from the public.
Agenda Item #10: Adopt 2019 budget.
Mr. Larrison made a motion to adopt the 2019 budget as proposed. Dr. Montgomery made a second to the motion. The motion carried by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #11: Adopt tax rate funding 2019 budget.
Dr. Toronjo made a motion to adopt the tax rate of 0.1187 to fund the 2019 budget. Dr. Montgomery made a second to the motion. The motion carried by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item#12: Consider approving payment of indigent care bills.
There were no Indigent care Bills for this month.
Agenda Item#13: Review and consider approving the monthly financial report.
The Statement of Revenues & Expenditures for the month ending July 2018 was presented by Ralph Beaty. The Revenue for the month was $ 397,910.76 and expenditures were $334,803.12. Mr. Larrison made a motion to approve the financial report as presented. The motion was seconded by Mrs. Emmett. The motion passed by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #14: Consider approving payment of monthly bills.
Monthly bills in the amount of $37,949.70 were presented by Keli Molina. Dr. Montgomery made a motion to pay the monthly bills as presented. The motion was seconded by Mr. Larrison. The motion passed by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #15: Approve the recording of August 2018 budgeted indigent care expense in the amount of $240,000.00.
Dr. Montgomery made a motion to approve the recording of the August 2018 indigent care expense. Mrs. Emmett seconded the motion. The motion carried by unanimous vote.
Agenda Item #16: Consider giving approval to Walker County Appraisal District to accept the bids received on the properties in trust owned by the taxing jurisdictions.
None
Agenda Item #17: Adjourn meeting.
There being no further business, Chairman Anne Woodard adjourned the meeting at 8:55 p.m.
__________________________________
Chairman Anne Karr- Woodard
Walker County Hospital District
{Seal}
Attest: _______________________________
Jerry Larrison, Secretary
Walker County Hospital District