PUBLIC HOSPITAL DEBATE SET FOR RETURN

By JIM SAUNDERS
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, October 4, 2011…..Two Senate leaders said Tuesday they expect lawmakers to plunge back into a debate next year about public hospitals, as a panel appointed by Gov. Rick Scott studies the system.

Senate Health Regulation Chairman Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, said he plans to again propose a bill that could require circuit judges to sign off on the sales or leases of public hospitals.

The bill touched off a lobbying fight during the 2011 legislative session, dividing the hospital industry. But after controversies in places such as Volusia County, Garcia said he wants to "make sure there's somebody else looking at these deals.''

Niceville Republican Don Gaetz, who is slated to become Senate president after the 2012 elections, also said he expects legislation to emerge about public hospitals. The Scott-appointed panel is reviewing information and hearing presentations and will issue a report by Jan. 1.

"We're really looking forward to the data, and I really believe this will be a live issue" during the session, said Gaetz, who has a long professional background in the hospice and hospital industries.

While lawmakers did not approve Garcia's bill this year, Scott issued an executive order creating the Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts.

Scott, a former chief executive of the Columbia/HCA hospital chain, appeared to set the stage for possible major changes in public hospitals. In part, his order said the commission should determine, "if appropriate to convert government-operated hospitals to different governance models (and) what the process should be for such conversion.''


But Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, questioned the need Tuesday for the commission --- and whether the report would include positive aspects of public hospitals.

"What's driving this commission?'' Sobel asked during a discussion in the Health Regulation Committee.

Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, expressed concerns that changes could upset what he described as a "delicate balance" in Hillsborough County. His concerns stemmed, at least in part, from a sales tax that helps pay for indigent care.

"I guess I'm trying to get to the bottom line of what we're trying to accomplish (with Scott's commission),'' Norman said.

The public-hospital issue has flared during the past year, with a Scott transition team last December raising questions about the role of government-owned hospitals.

Critics have pointed, in part, to continuing financial problems at the publicly funded Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

But they also got ammunition from the botched merger of Volusia County's public Bert Fish Medical Center with the non-profit Adventist Health System. That deal died after it was disclosed that the Bert Fish board violated the state's Sunshine Law in discussing the deal.

The legislation earlier this year centered on such deals and largely pitted for-profit hospitals against public hospitals and the Florida Hospital Association. Garcia's bill and a similar unsuccessful measure in the House would have put new criteria on the sales or leases of hospitals.

For-profit hospitals backed the bills, which they said would make such deals more transparent and fair. Also, for-profit hospitals hoped the measures would help give them an opportunity to compete if public hospitals are sold or leased.

But the public hospitals argued that their boards of directors, not judges, should make decisions about taxpayer-funded facilities.