Monday, November 20, 2023, 3:26 pm News Flash Archive

The Greenwood City Council is preparing to reject all the bids that have been received in response to the latest Request for Proposals (RFP) for the lease or sale of Greenwood Leflore Hospital.

The proposed resolution appears on the agenda for tomorrow's council meeting that was circulated late last week. See a copy here: Agenda for November 21 city council meeting

The title of the resolution being offered is "A Resolution of The City Council of The City of Greenwood, Mississippi rejecting Bids for Sale Or Lease Of Greenwood Leflore Hospital."

Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams confirmed to The Taxpayers Channel that the council will reject all the bids when it meets this Tuesday.

The Leflore County Board of Supervisors has not formally discussed the hospital bids, but at least one source confirmed that the county supervisors will likely reject all the bids as well.

This makes the third RFP for GLH that will have failed -- one in November 2012, the second in the summer of 2022, and the current RFP issued in August 2023. Please see our reporting on the two most recent RFPs and the numerous "deal killers" that were the predicted downfalls of them both: Round Two in Greenwood Leflore Hospital RFP for lease or sale

This time around, there were apparently two bids submitted. One bid was from Quentin Whitwell's group, which we reported on in detail here: More details emerge on Quentin Whitwell's bid to lease or purchase Greenwood Leflore Hospital

Whitwell, a rural hospital revitalization entrepreneur, is well known as a proponent of the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) model, where hospitals downsize to outpatient services and an emergency room, with all inpatient services discontinued. This model provides higher reimbursement rates from the federal government.

GLH officials have repeatedly rejected such a proposal, opting instead to seek designation by CMS as a Critical Access Hospital, which would be allowed to continue inpatient services.

Many local officials seem to think that Whitwell would go forward with downsizing GLH to an REH if his bid was accepted.

Mr. Whitwell commented on the impending rejection of the hospital bids:

Cannot say I am terribly surprised but I do wish they would give our plan a chance. We can do some good!

REH can be so good! If you see the vision. It is not the "downgrade" naysayers say it is.

GLH's critical access application was initially rejected by the Atlanta CMS office on August 24, 2023, but an appeal was made to the Washington DC office for reconsideration. The final decision is expected by the end of 2023.

GLH administrators and officials have repeatedly stated that without critical access status, the hospital will have to close down. However, even if critical access designation is received, the hospital will have a hard time breaking even going forward. See our reporting here: Even with critical access designation, GLH FY2023-2024 proposed budget projects operating loss of $5.4 million

According to the Greenwood Commonwealth, another bid response to the latest RFP was received from a hospital group headed by Dr. Jawad Shah, a Montreal neurosurgeon. His group, Insight Health Systems, has been in business since 2008 and operates hospitals in Flint and Dearborn Michigan, as well as in Chicago.

No details have been given to the public about the terms of the Insight bid.

The question that should be on everyone's mind is, if GLH is denied critical access designation, will the city and county simply close the hospital, or will yet another, more desperate RFP be issued to try to find somebody to take it over?

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To review our reporting on GLH and its financial woes, please see here: Index of Greenwood Leflore Hospital news articles

John Pittman Hey
The Taxpayers Channel

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