JeffCo Lawmakers File Hospital Bills

Some Alabama state legislators apparently upset about the downsizing of Jefferson County, Ala.'s indigent care hospital have filed bills that, among other things, would require disclosure of expenses funded with a dedicated indigent care tax, and subject county commissioners to fines.

Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, co-chair of the local legislative delegation, and Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, have co-filed at least three bills dealing with the indigent care tax and the county-owned facility it used to support called Cooper Green Mercy Hospital.

Rogers and Moore have been outspoken critics of the commissioners, who closed inpatient care and the emergency room at the hospital after the county's bankruptcy judge said that state law did not require that the county operate a hospital to deliver indigent care. The county has since opened urgent-care clinics.

The lawmakers filed one bill that would require the county to provide quarterly financial details about the indigent tax to the local legislative delegation, and to post the documents on the county's website.

Commissioners could be charged with malfeasance and civil penalties up to $250 per day for failing to provide the information.

Other bills would redirect the indigent tax revenues to a city, health department, or health care authority. One bill would require that the county sell the hospital and its assets to an unnamed municipality that would run it.

An ongoing dispute with the Legislature led Jefferson County to file for the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country in November 2011 with $4.2 billion of debt.

The judge overseeing the Chapter 9 case accused state lawmakers for precipitating the county's bankruptcy filing for refusing to re-establish an occupational tax that provided a large amount of revenue for the general fund. The tax was struck down by Alabama courts twice, and the second time the state Supreme Court said lawmakers did not pass the law correctly.

In addition to losing the job tax, the county's cash-flow problems worsened because of routine deficits at Cooper Green hospital, though it received $40 million a year from a designated tax.

Federal Judge Thomas Bennett said that there is no legal requirement for the county to have a hospital, and that the county is only required to pay for indigent care that is not fully reimbursed by other payers. The county has contracted with local hospitals to provide services outside its clinic.

In another bill, Rogers and Moore are seeking to repeal a law passed several years ago that required Jefferson County to hire a county manager. The county hired former Hoover mayor Tony Petelos, who is also a former legislator, to be its first manager.

During a public hearing on the repeal bill Monday, several other local legislators predicted there would be no support for clawing back the county manager requirement, according to the Birmingham News.

The Alabama Legislature's annual session is expected to run through May 20.

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