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BY GALEN HOLLEY
Staff Writer
The Grenada County Board of Supervisors on Monday voted unanimously to allow the board president and county attorney to discuss the lease and possible, eventual sale of Grenada Lake Medical Center to University Medical Center in Jackson.
According to County Attorney Jay Gore III, the board is discussing leasing GLMC to UMC with the option to buy.
The option would be represented in the form of a local and private bill and would depend on two appraisals of the hospital, Gore said.
District One Supervisor Michael Lott made the motion to allow Gore and Board President Chad Bridges to discuss the agreement with UMC reps, seconded by District Three Supervisor Columbus Hankins.
After meeting Tuesday with UMC personnel, both Bridges and Gore sounded optimistic.
“We made a lot of progress in the month of February,” Gore said. “Things are moving fairly well at this point.”
Bridges agreed.
“Things went well, and I think they’re (UMC) excited about being in Grenada,” said Bridges.
Gore indicated that the supervisors and UMC are getting closer to reaching an agreement, but some details have to be clarified.
“There’s a lot of minutia that needs to be worked out,” said Gore. “They (UMC) have decided they want to have their own provider number.”
Any institution that submits a bill into Medicare or Medicaid has to have a provider number, and obtaining it can take a while, Gore said.
The hospital and UMC are still on track for a handover of management on May 1, Gore said.
The supervisors have been deliberating the future of GLMC since hearing from the hospital board in March of last year.
GLMC Director of Administration Chip Denton previously said that the hospital and UMC would be a good match.
“They’re certainly a prestigious organization with extensive resources, and they have a strong interest in making this community hospital as successful as it can be,” Denton said in December.
For the full story, see the printed edition or the online edition of the GrenadaStar.
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