Hospital board works on finances, OSM exterior

Hospital Service District No. 2’s board made a first move Wednesday toward putting proceeds from a new property tax into action.
Also Wednesday, the board got a look at proposed plans for the permanent fix for the exterior of Ochsner St. Mary. And board members were urged to help Louisiana get in line for federal funds being allocated to help rural hospitals.
District residents voted Dec. 7 to impose the 9-mill property tax.
It’s expected to raise $3.4 million a year for physical improvements at Ochsner St. Mary as well as scholarships for prospective health care professionals.
The board has plans to borrow against the revenue to raise $6.7 million rather than waiting for the tax proceeds to come in at the end of each year.
The board passed a resolution announcing its intent to issue the $6.7 million in bonds at an interest rate not to exceed 6%.
Bond counsel M. Jason Akers said the cost of debt service will be $800,000-$900,000 over the 10-year life of the bonds, depending on the interest rate.
The St. Mary Parish Council must approve plans for the bond issue. If it does, the Hospital Service District No. 2 board will make its final decision.
Also Wednesday, architect Barry Lann of Grace Design Studios showed possible designs for exterior work on Ochsner St. Mary, which the district owns and is operated under lease by Ochsner Health.
Water infiltration during Hurricane Francine closed the hospital to in-patients for several days. A temporary seal has been applied to the exterior and was complete before the bulk of this hurricane season.
Now attention has turned to a permanent solution. Lann’s proposal is to use large, insulated metal panels offering thermal and moisture protection.
The board has some decorating decisions to make. The panels can have a variety of colors and textures, Lann said.
In one version presented by Lann, for example, the exterior of the hospital is all in white. In another, most of the hospital is white while the face of the elevator tower on Marguerite Street is in blue and bears the Ochsner logo.
Lann estimated the cost of that work at $20 million-$25 million.
The board has plans to seek state capital outlay funding for the project.
Other rehab plans include changes in the main entry area to improve and repairs to an entrance overhang.
The rural hospital funding is part of the Rural Health Transportation Program in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill passed earlier this year.
The bill’s provisions for changes in Medicaid sparked a debate over how many people will be affected and how badly. A University of North Carolina study found that hundreds of hospitals, including Ochsner St. Mary and Bayou Bend, could be hurt because of their reliance on Medicaid.
But the bill also contained $50 billion over five years for rural health. Half is to be distributed equally among the states. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will distribute the rest depending on population, how big a role rural hospitals play in overall health care, the status of some hospitals in the state, and more.
St. Mary Economic Development Director Evan Boudreaux told the board that the federal government shutdown may give Louisiana time to develop a plan that would put it in line for more funding.
The Rural Health Transformation Program requires states obtaining funding to use the money for at least three of the purposes from a long list.
The list includes improving prevention and chronic disease management; providing payments to health care providers; recruiting and training people to use technology in rural hospitals; recruiting clinical professionals to serve rural areas for at least five years; and supporting access to opioid use disorder treatment and other substance abuse and mental health services.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says that between 2005 and 2023, 100 rural U.S. hospitals closed, and another 95 downsized to provide only emergency care.