Council will get briefing on hospital negotiations

Staff Report
The St. Mary Parish Council will get a closed-door report on negotiations for find a new management company for Teche Regional Medical Center.
The Hospital Service District No. 2 board will brief the council and President David Hanagriff in a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Whitney Bank Building, 201 Everett St. in Morgan City.
LifePoint Health has operated the hospital under a lease with the district since 2005.
But LifePoint, based in Tennessee, has announced its intention to pull out of its operations in Morgan City and other Louisiana location.
Earlier this month, the hospital announced that LifePoint and the district board had agreed on undisclosed terms for ending the remainder of the lease.
The district board has consistently operated in secret “executive sessions” in its relationship with LifePoint, citing a state law written to help rural health care facilities make themselves more competitive.
Members of the Teche Regional staff came to the Sept. 12 parish council meeting to express concerns about LifePoint’s departure and the difficulty in attracting physicians to small towns.
State Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, said the hospital deal should be more transparent. Morgan City Council member Lou Tamporello said the district hasn’t been good at working with the staff or the community.
LifePoint and the district board clashed beginning in 2015 over the district board’s attempt to appoint one of its own members, Dr. Natchez “Trey” Morice, to Teche Regional’s own board.
Both parties agreed that the lease called for one district board member to be on the hospital board.
A LifePoint entity, PHC-Morgan City, maintained that its lease gave it the power to name which district board member would serve on the hospital board. The Teche Regional board’s choice was Dr. Tomas Birriel.
But the district board argued that it had an implied right to name one of its members to the Teche Regional board.
In at least three meetings, according to court records, the district board tried to name Morice to the Teche Regional board, and even threatened at one point to hold PHC-Morgan City to be in default on the terms of its lease.
PHC-Morgan City sued the district board, and in April 2017 16th Judicial District Judge Vincent J. Borne ruled that the lease gives the hospital the right to pick the district commissioner who will serve on the Teche Regional Board.
Since then, the district board has frequently listed closed-door discussion of the lawsuit on its monthly meeting agendas, citing the Enhanced Ability to Compete Act.