Inside the political fight to build a rural Georgia hospital

Ed Whitehouse stood alongside a state freeway in rural Butts County, Georgia, and surveyed acres of rolling fields and forests close to Interstate 75. Instead of farmland and timber, he envisioned a hospital.

Whitehouse, a advisor for an area well being care firm that wishes to construct a hospital there with at the very least 150 beds, stated the group might break floor inside a 12 months. The concept, he stated, is to supply medical providers past these at present supplied by Wellstar Sylvan Grove Medical Center, an getting old, nonprofit “vital entry” hospital that gives restricted providers, together with emergency care, rehabilitation, wound care, and imaging.

But it took a brand new legislation, pushed by the state’s highly effective Republican lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, to clear the way in which for building. The land is partly owned by his father, Bill Jones, a profitable businessman whose curiosity in growing a hospital in his residence county drew consideration from state Democrats and the hospital trade.

The state of affairs has been portrayed as “this billionaire entrepreneur, Bill Jones, exploiting the authorized system by means of his son, imposing his will on folks and attempting to money in,” Whitehouse stated. “Nothing might be farther from the reality.”

Woven by means of the drama in Butts County are arcane however consequential guidelines that require state approval for hospital building and growth. The guidelines, used practically nationwide till the Eighties, require potential builders to use for permission for brand new initiatives. State officers consider want based mostly on standards similar to inhabitants development and present hospital capability.

This 12 months, Georgia lawmakers joined a number of different states in focusing on these “certificates of want,” or CON, laws for dramatic change. Some states have exempted sure medical suppliers from the method; others have been extra dramatic, together with South Carolina, which is sunsetting most of its guidelines.

Attempts to pave the way in which for a brand new hospital in Butts County present how debate over certificates of want legal guidelines can intensify as legislatures attempt to reconcile the customarily conflicting priorities of politicians, the well being care trade, and communities.

The legal guidelines have been criticized for limiting competitors, and a few well being care analysts, like Matthew Mitchell, a senior analysis fellow at West Virginia University, really feel on a regular basis folks could get the brief finish of the stick.

“This type of a regulation is commonly there as a result of highly effective companies need them,” Mitchell stated, “not as a result of they defend shoppers.”

Bill Jones, a 79-year-old former state legislator, supported a 2022 legislative push to open a brand new hospital in Butts County. But the trouble bumped into formidable opposition from Wellstar Health System, which operates Sylvan Grove and 10 different hospitals in Georgia.

“As a nonprofit well being system, we’re all the time exploring partnerships that develop our mission of enhancing well-being within the communities we serve,” stated Matthew O’Connor, a Wellstar spokesperson. “Our evaluation signifies that one other hospital on this space is just not wanted at the moment.”

This 12 months, Georgia Democrats thought they may leverage Republicans’ curiosity in loosening the principles to realize help for Medicaid growth. But Democrats have been outnumbered within the legislature, and lawmakers eased a number of guidelines with out that trade-off.

For instance, sure hospital initiatives in rural counties at the moment are exempt. Jones’ venture and his residence county look more likely to profit.

Burt Jones, Georgia’s lieutenant governor, who’s being investigated for his position as a faux elector for Donald Trump within the 2020 presidential election, maintains his push for adjustments to the principles is not about serving to his father.

“It will give folks entry to well being care in an inexpensive journey time and comfort for them as nicely,” Burt Jones stated.

Bill Jones has used Butts County as the house base to construct his enterprise community, which incorporates petroleum distribution, retail comfort shops, and fast-food eating places. In a current interview, he complained about media protection of his son’s legislative connection to the hospital venture.

He stated his curiosity in opening one other native hospital is about group want and, at the very least partly, stems from his private expertise. His spouse will get medical providers at Emory Healthcare, greater than 40 miles away in Atlanta.

“You’re not going to get the eye you want medically” on the 25-bed Sylvan Grove hospital in Jackson, he stated. “Health care ought to not be about politics.”

But the lieutenant governor needed to be considerably conscious that laws he was pushing might be seen as financially benefiting a detailed member of the family, stated Josh McLaurin, a Democratic state senator whose district runs from Atlanta into its northern suburbs. Fellow members of the Democratic Party have been inspired to help the certificates of want invoice, though the GOP has a majority within the Georgia Legislature, he stated.

“If they need Democrats on board on a invoice they may in all probability go with out our votes, that tends to recommend that there is a concern in regards to the narrative,” McLaurin stated.

Hospital trade lobbyists, conscious of the Jones-Butts County connection, watched the talk with worry of wholesale repeal of the certificates of want legal guidelines, which finally did not occur.

The ultimate invoice would not title Butts County particularly. But it does exempt “a brand new common acute care hospital in a rural county” from having to acquire a certificates of want. With a inhabitants of about 27,000, Butts County meets the definition of “rural” outlined in Georgia legislation.

Now, the small native firm for which Whitehouse works—Interstate Health Systems, which is partly owned by Bill Jones—is shifting ahead. Land is being cleared for medical workplace buildings, probably to lure suppliers to the world.

Whitehouse stated main hospital programs already working in Georgia are all in favour of partnering on building and operation of a brand new facility.

Members of the Butts County Hospital Authority, which oversees Sylvan Grove, declined to remark. But final 12 months, county commissioners handed a decision encouraging the hospital authority to pursue a brand new facility.

Byrd Garland, a retired legal professional and former hospital authority member, stated he’d respect any venture that provides folks native entry to well being care, “so they do not need to drive an hour or two hours to get to it.”

Garland stated he is obtained each good and unhealthy care at Sylvan Grove, and typically would quite make the trek to Atlanta to a better-resourced hospital.

“You get that type of mindset once you’ve grown up out right here on this medical desert that we’re in now,” he stated.

2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.