The hospital tax that cleared the Georgia General Assembly this week sets up a series of winners and losers in the health-care industry, with wealthier facilities paying in and facilities that serve more of the state’s poor getting a cash infusion.
But where that leaves The Medical Center of Central Georgia is unclear, hospital President and CEO Don Faulk said Friday. In January, a preliminary breakdown on the tax showed the facility losing $7.7 million. But the complicated tax formula has changed several times since then, and that first breakdown was considered a rough estimate.
So Faulk and his team are still analyzing what the House and Senate passed Wednesday, though he expects to take a hit in the low millions.
“We’ve not been a winner yet, and I don’t think we will be here,” he said.
The hospital does stand to benefit, though, from a change in the formula meant to give trauma care facilities a boost. The Medical Center’s emergency room is one of a few high-level trauma facilities in the state. Also, Faulk said somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of the hospital’s patients are on Medicaid, which is the program this new tax is slated to feed. So there’s a series of gives and takes in the tax that hospital executives will be crunching the numbers on for some time.
“There’s lots of ... moving pieces and parts,” Faulk said.
Another voice on roadside litter
State road crews in west-central Georgia picked up 37,904 pounds of litter in just one week, the Georgia Department of Transportation’s District 3 said in a statement. The district encompasses 31 counties from the Alabama border to Twiggs County to Henry County to Stewart County.
In the statement, state officials echoed the complaints of Bibb County and Macon officials hoping to do something about roadside litter, especially the illegal signs: “Despite the high costs, Georgia DOT litter pickup efforts do not solve the litter problem. Litter reappears on Georgia’s roadsides within days after clean up.” The agency said litter hurts the beauty of the state and puts cleanup crews and drivers at risk.
Hefty plan
If 496 pages is doing it right, we’d hate to see what the wrong application for the Atlantic Cotton Mills grant request looked like.
City and county leaders are taking another swipe at a $1.5 million grant. The first effort was rejected because Macon tried to rewrite the rules for how the grant worked, something that did not amuse state bureaucrats, who rejected it out of hand.
Now, the Middle Georgia Regional Commission has polished a 496-page proposal that’s already on its way to the state Department of Community Affairs. If the grant is approved, the money will first be loaned to developers The Landmark Group, which plans to create 106 residential units in a $12.5 million project. When the loan is paid back, the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority will turn the money into a revolving loan fund, according to a memo from the regional commission.
Atlantic Cotton Mills, originally built in 1889, is a deteriorating, 80,000-square-foot complex behind the Kroger store on Pio Nono Avenue. The mills are said to be the only project in Macon that would qualify for the funds now.
Insurance debate Sunday
The various candidates for state insurance commissioner will be in Macon on Sunday to speak to pharmacists gathered for the Georgia Academy of Independent Pharmacy’s spring meeting.
The group will gather Sunday afternoon at the Macon Marriott City Center. Association Director Jeff Lurey said he expects the full slate of candidates to participate, which may be one of the few times they’ll all gather for a forum.
The questions, though, will trend toward the technical and address pharmacy issues.
Staff writers Travis Fain and Mike Stucka contributed to this report.
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