Lee officials ask for CON extension, shift to nonprofit hospital

LEESBURG — Noting that the county has changed tack from for-profit designation to not-for-profit with ownership by the Lee County Development Authority, Lee Commission Chairman Billy Mathis confirmed Tuesday that the Lee Commission has asked for an extension of its Certificate of Need in hopes of reviving its planned hospital.

“We filed an extension request on Friday,” Mathis said Tuesday at his Albany law office. “It’s up to the Department of Community Health — and I’m not the attorney for the state, so I don’t know what their decision will be … they’re going to do what they’re going to do — but the basis of our request is that we’ve just been through a year like nobody’s ever seen with the pandemic.

“Just like us, as we were moving forward with plans for the hospital, overnight everything just ground to a halt. All the big boys in the health care industry were busy up to that point acquiring hospitals, from Atlanta to Augusta to Columbus, but when COVID hit, everyone started focusing on how they were going to treat all of the people in their hospitals. In Lee County, our focus became taking care of our citizens, keeping our heads above water. We were focused on what we’d have to do with our budget, how we’d manage our reserves. There was no playbook for this thing.”

Mathis said the primary change in the county’s efforts to build the hospital is the pivot to a nonprofit facility rather than the previous for-profit status. The owner of the facility will be the Lee Development Authority, one of two authorities (the other being a hospital authority), Mathis said, that can own and manage such health care facilities in the state.

“We just thought it was best that we have a community-based, nonprofit hospital,” he said. “The primary idea, as it has been all along, is to give the people of this region two quality health care facilities. We’re not anti any other group or facility, we just think it makes sense to have two quality hospitals. It will be good for our citizens, good for industry in the region, good for economic development in southwest Georgia.

“It’s been proven time and time again: Monopolies breed inefficiency.

Mathis said he’d been given no timeframe as to when DCH might make its decision on the CON extension.

“It’s in their hands,” he said. “I do not believe, though, that anyone can argue that the pandemic kept us from moving forward with our hospital. We’d completed a huge drainage project on the property that allows us to divert water running off from the (Albany) mall that was being captured on the property. That water now goes all the way to the creek.

“We’d completed site work, had architectural plans approved and were getting ready to issue bonds when COVID hit. From that point, it was more a matter of trying to survive.”

Responding to a question about hospital bonds, Mathis said Georgia law states that neither the taxpayers of Lee County nor the Lee County government would be liable for the net worth of the bonds if the authority, as owner, defaults on the project. He cited State Code 36-62-10, which says:

O.C.G.A. 36-62-10 (2010) 36-62-10. Obligations of authority not indebtedness of state or political subdivisions

No bonds or other obligations of and no indebtedness incurred by any authority shall constitute an indebtedness or obligation of the state of Georgia or of any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision thereof, nor shall any act of any authority in any manner constitute or result in the creation of an indebtedness of this state or of any such county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision. All such bonds and obligations shall be payable solely from the revenues therein pledged to such payment, including pledged rentals, sales proceeds, insurance proceeds, and condemnation awards; and no holder or holders of any such bonds or obligations shall ever have the right to compel any exercise of the taxing power of this state or of any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision thereof, nor to enforce the payment thereof against any property of the state or of any such county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision.

Mathis lauded the Lee Commission for its efforts to keep the project moving forward while protecting the financial interests of the county.

“Look, even with the pandemic, we’re going to show a surplus this year,” he said. “That’s the fifth year in a row we’ve passed a balanced budget with no tax increases and with funds added to our surplus. And we’re going to use some of the funding we’re getting from the federal government to give all of our employees a one-time lump sum payment. That’s how we keep the best employees.

“It’s a Herculean task trying to build a hospital in the state of Georgia. And, looking forward, if you ask if I’d be surprised if some entity objected or tried to sue us to stop this process, the answer is no. Would that disappoint me? Yes. But we’ve had to fight every step of the way during this process, and I don’t expect this to be any different.”

File Photo: Carlton Fletcher