The future of the Hennepin Healthcare Board that oversees the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) could be determined by the Hennepin County Board as soon as it grapples with a budget deficit that could reach $36 million this year.
“We are facing a structural financial crisis at this hospital because we take care of patients who don’t have insurance or are underinsured,” says Mohamed Omar, chair of the Hennepin Healthcare Board.
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But Omar strongly opposes a move by the Hennepin County Board to dissolve the Hennepin Healthcare Board and take back direct control of the hospital.
“This hospital is not in trouble because of mismanagement,” he said at a news conference across the street from HCMC on Monday. “When you take care of patients regardless of their ability to pay, that is what happens.”
Uncompensated health care is a statewide and national problem that is magnified at HCMC because it’s the state’s largest publicly-funded hospital. However, the Hennepin Healthcare Board doesn’t have the power to increase taxes or make other revenue changes to shore up finances.
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“The board of commissioners knows that we need to step in and we need to step in directly,” says Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde, who supports the proposal to dissolve the Hennepin Healthcare Board. “As they’ve said, they have no ability to raise taxes or reallocate revenue,” Lunde says. “The county board does.”
Lunde says the top priority is to save HCMC and the valuable role it plays in Minnesota.
“The hospital’s not going to close,” he says. “The hospital’s not going to pull back from their safety-net mission.”
There is a public hearing on Tuesday for people to voice opinions on the proposal to dissolve the Hennepin Healthcare Board. Lunde won’t say if he thinks the motion has the five votes out of seven needed to pass.
“I don’t ever speak for my fellow commissioners,” he says. “I think there are votes to move this forward, but I think people want to hear are there things we may want to modify our motion? Are there things we may want to take into consideration as we do this?”
Hennepin Healthcare was created by the Minnesota Legislature in 2007 in cooperation with the county to help oversee the hospital. Omar and vice chair Thomas Adams say instead of dissolving the board, the county should work in partnership, looking for solutions.
“We need to stop pretending this is about governance,” Adams said. “It is not. I believe HCMC has a financial problem, not a governance problem. It’s not time for a power grab. It’s a time for partnership.”
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