Some details about bids Oktibbeha County has received for a potential sale of OCH Regional Medical Center emerged after a lengthy board of supervisors meeting, but some details are still unclear.
Supervisors met for a special-call meeting Tuesday afternoon. The vast majority of the meeting, which lasted about two hours and 15 minutes, was held behind closed doors in executive session while supervisors reviewed bids for the county owned facility.
Supervisors began seeking bids for the 96-bed hospital in May, with a final deadline of Sept. 15. Bids were originally supposed to be submitted by July 7. However, the hospital did not meet a June deadline for most of the information supervisors requested to provide bidders, and the board pushed the proposal deadline.
When Tuesday’s meeting returned to open session, supervisors did not discuss the bids, but instead handed out a press release to members of the public and media, and adjourned.
The release says the county received bids from “nationally recognized” nonprofit health systems.
According to the release, the bids addressed seven areas of concern for supervisors, including: generating net proceeds of at least $25 million for the county after about $35 million in hospital-related bond financing; ending a roughly $1.9 million annual county tax levy for the hospital’s operation; $20 million to $30 million in capital investments; demonstrated ability to improve health care in the community; a plan to retain existing employees and promote employee retention and stability; a commitment to collaborate with medical staff, employees and community; and expansion of clinical services, including primary care, mental health and tele-health, through OCH’s service area.
Other details — such as how many bids the county received and who submitted them — are still unknown. Officials, citing contractual obligations, declined to divulge those details after Tuesday’s meeting.
With a Nov. 7 public vote on whether to proceed with a possible hospital transaction looming, it appears unlikely supervisors intend to release any other information publicly.
“We’re still under contractual obligations,” said District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller. “Until the vote, we have to stay under those guidelines. The guidelines are confidential. Of course, after any public vote is over, all information becomes public, but this bid is not over yet. This is the minimum of what we’re going to get. If this goes through, we have to wait for the vote to happen.”
Still, Miller said she was pleased with the bids, which she described as “phenomenal.”
Miller also said supervisors will discuss putting money into a trust fund, similar to what Lowndes County did when it sold its hospital, at the next board meeting.
Last week, supervisors discussed possibly holding a public meeting after reviewing the bonds to release what information they could. After Tuesday’s meeting, it’s unclear if such a meeting will happen. Board President Orlando Trainer said the press release should give voters and idea of what the bids speak to.
“In that little press release, those points that we emphasized, those are the points that give you an indication about the direction we’re heading,” Trainer said. “Now, the deal is a long way from being done. One thing that stands between us, of course, is the referendum. The other thing is getting into the gist of it and the meat and potatoes of what’s out there and getting specific.”
Trainer said the bids were scored relatively evenly, but there’s more information supervisors would like to see.
“Right now we’re confident that there are solid responses,” Trainer said. “At the same time, we couldn’t reveal certain things that we may have wanted to reveal because of the confidentiality agreements. People may say ‘What about this?’ or ‘What about that?’ but right now, this is what we’ve got.”
Consultant Ted Woodrell said with the election approaching, the bid process will move into a “quiet phase.”
“It doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time and energy until the people vote,” he said.
A previous analysis of OCH estimated it could draw a sale price from $20 million to $60 million.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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