HCHD Formally Accepts Negotiated Settlement with County

Board Members Sworn-In

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – Earlier this month, the Houston County Commissioners Court formally accepted a negotiated settlement for the reimbursement of ambulance service costs with the Houston County Hospital District (HCHD).

On Tuesday, May 18, it was the HCHD Board of Directors’ turn as they approved the reimbursement costs at a savings of nearly $25,000.

HCHD Board President Barbara Crowson said the Negotiations Committee had recently met with Houston County Judge Jim Lovell and Houston County Auditor Melissa Jeter to discuss reimbursement options.

“We met with them and they said we owed them $174,000 and something. Our attorney said it was an error that someone did not file an interlocal agreement within the correct timeframe. He thought we only owed them $128,000. We managed to work in between and we settled for $150,000. They approved this last Tuesday in their meeting to accept $150,000 as final payment for the ambulance. We are even with them and they are even with us and we are all happy about that, right now,” Negotiations Committee member Dina Pipes said.

The negotiated settlement is saving the hospital district $24,168.48.

A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to pay Houston County $150,000 and retire this HCHD debt.

Prior to the ambulance cost discussion, five members of the board were administered the oaths of office for their elected positions.

HCHD Vice President Dr. John Stovall addressed those in attendance and said, “I am going to administer the oath of office to the newly and existing board directors. I’m going to ask to ask Mrs. (Barbara) Crowson, Mrs. (Debbie) Kelly, Mrs. (Carol) Dawson, Mr. (Roy) Langford and Mr. (Harvey) Bruner to please come forward.”

Following the administration of the oath, board officers were elected. Barbara Crowson was re-elected as president; Dr. John Stovall was re-elected as vice president; and Dina Pipes was re-elected as the board’s secretary.

As the meeting continued, Cassie Gallaway, Operations Supervisor for Houston County EMS provided the board with her monthly ambulance report.

“For the month of April, we had 294 requests for service. Of those calls, 44 were cancelled, 65 were non-transports and we transported 185 people,” she said.

There were 17 requests for the air ambulance and four patients were flown, Gallaway indicated. She also informed the directors 84% of patients who were transported were brought to Crockett Medical Center (CMC), while 6% went to CHI Lufkin, 4% went to Palestine Regional and 3% went to both Huntsville and Woodland Heights. Gallaway added there were also nine mutual aid calls to ESD #1.

CMC CEO Tommy Johnson followed Gallaway and reported the hospital was very close to the numbers they were running pre-COVID-19.

As he continued, the CEO brought up an issue with the facility’s chillers.

“I think Mrs. Crowson has made everyone aware of the chiller situation. During the ice storm (in February) we lost both of the chillers on top of the school. We have already ordered those and have them coming. We think FEMA will cover the cost because it happened during the ice storm. We have our application in with them but we are probably about six weeks out from getting an answer from them. The nice thing is, the governor declared a disaster situation here, so I think we will be able to get them through FEMA,” he said.

Johnson went on to say during the last month, several surgeries had to be cancelled because the temperature got too high and the humidity got too low – due to the chiller issues. He added the hospital could possibly lose its operating license if the chiller situation was not rectified in a timely manner.

In other matters brought before the board: