The City of Celina planning to submit a letter of intent to healthcare provider company Boa Vida.
The company recently expressed interest in helping to reopen the Cumberland River Hospital. Mayor Luke Collins said the group wants to ensure that the local community would be invested, so he proposed a compensation plan that would pay the company to reopen the facility.
“It’s cut and dry it’s not anything that puts us at risk whatsoever,” Collins said. “All it is is just confirming our commitment and telling Boa Vida that we appreciate them and we hope that things will work out.”
Collins said the letter does not bind the city to the $125,000 incentive pay. He said the payment is due upon the opening of a critical access hospital. Collins said federal and state law defines a critical access hospital as a 25-bed hospital with a fully-functioning ER. He said it is not just a patient clinic.
Collins said they are hopeful the county will match the money and will vote on the topic at its November 7th meeting.
“It is illegal for us to commit any money beyond one budget year for a hospital,” Collins said. “Now if the hospital comes back next year, they could come back next year and say ‘We’re struggling, could the city and county give us $50,000.’ We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get there (…) This is what we have committed for this year, and we can use the COVID money to cover that.”
Collins said it’s important to get the letter to Boa Vida to lay out the city’s intent. He said the letter was written by City Attorney Jimmy White.
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