MORGANTOWN — the House Government Organization Committee introduced and passed a bill Friday morning immediately aimed at helping the sale of Fairmont Regional Medical Center to a new buyer.
However, the bill is still being tweaked and may look different when it comes up for amendment next week.
“We are working with several delegates to refine the amendment that was passed by the committee,” said Joe Letnaunchyn, president and CEO of the West Virginia Hospital Association. “e hope to have it resolved early next week, which may change the context of the bill.”
California-based Alecto Healthcare Services announced the pending closure of FRMC on Tuesday. Alecto previously closed Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling and its sister, East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry, Ohio, in September.
HB 4971 deals with the certificate of need (CON) process for the sale of a financially distressed hospital.
Current law says that any hospital that holds a certificate of need may transfer that to a buyer if the hospital is financially distressed. This expedites the sale by bypassing the need for the buyer to apply to the Health Care Authority for a certificate.
The bill adds two provisions to the law. The first says that the transaction of the property on the existing campus is exempt from certificate requirements for five years.
People familiar with the bill said that this would allow a buyer to do what it likes with the facility and not necessarily run it as a hospital. The buyer could bring in several MRI machines and use part of the facility as an imaging center, for example. Current restrictions would remain – the buyer couldn’t turn it into a nursing home or methadone clinic for example.
The second provision says that if the facility is not sold within three months of its doors closing, the health services provided by that facility could be provided anywhere in the county.
The idea of the bill, the people said, is to make a financially distressed hospital – FRMC in this case – more attractive to potential buyers who might want to use the property.
Delegate Margaret Staggers, D-Fayette and an emergency room physician, asked if that provision means that the facility could be called a mall or a parking garage on converted to a different type of care (barring the exceptions). Committee counsel said that the facility would not be restricted to whatever services the previous owner provided.
Delegate Mike Caputo, D-Marion, expressed concern during the meeting that the second provision might allow companies to come in a cherry pick services to provide.
Caputo said after the meeting that it’s important not to have a knee-jerk reaction that sets up broader, negative consequence. But time is of the essence for FRMC.
He said both times that he would vote for the bill, but would be working with the Hospital Association to tighten in and reserved the right to vote against it on the floor.
WVU Medicine has publicly expressed its interest in the FRMC site, and its concern with meeting the medical needs of the community – particularly emergency care.
The Dominion Post asked WVU Medicine how the bill might dovetail with its interests and intentions. WVU Medicine answered in an email, “We’re not in a place to provide comment on it because the bill is new and we haven’t had time to look into it.”
HB 4971 will be on first reading on Monday and second reading, and subject to amendment, on Tuesday. Wednesday is Day 50, Crossover Day, when all bills have to be passed out of their house of origin and sent to the other side. Any House or Senate bills that don’t make the cutoff just die.
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