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At a Jan. 14 meeting, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors discussed the future of Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital. By a unanimous vote, they decided to approach the San Benito Health Care District in an effort to stymie the potential lease-sale of the hospital to the Michigan-based Insight Health.
In November, voters approved Measure X, which allowed the hospital district’s board of directors to proceed with leasing and potentially selling the hospital to Insight or “another qualified buyer.” The initiative, which is binding, passed with 51% of the county’s voters agreeing to the deal.
At the same time, voters approved Measure B, which the Board of Supervisors placed on the ballot as an advisory vote to determine whether voters supported keeping the hospital in local public hands rather than selling it. The county’s proposal involves a joint powers authority (JPA) between the county, the health care district and other interested parties to operate the hospital. More than 70% of the electorate approved it.
At the Jan. 14 meeting, supervisors “unpaused” the ad hoc committee they created to have a say in the hospital negotiations.
“I am still adamant that I want the hospital to stay local,” said supervisor Angela Curro, who is part of that committee.
Cecilia Montalvo, the consultant the board hired to help with the hospital negotiations, said the election results were contradictory and a sign of “voter confusion.”
The results of the election seem to confirm this theory. While Measure B was supported by nearly 12,000 people, Measure X passed by just 700 votes. And, as BenitoLink reported in a Jan. 3 story headlined Thousands of voters skipped some November races, more than 1,400 county voters skipped this measure and didn’t vote on it.
Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki, who’s also part of the ad hoc Hazel Hawkins committee, agreed there was confusion, and even questioned the validity of Measure X. “It’s pretty clear, based on the results, that Measure B was the real result,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that there were these efforts to confuse voters. I don’t think there’s any other logical explanation for that anomaly.”
The board of supervisors also argued that the approval of Measure X does not force the Health Care District to sell the hospital’s assets to Insight Health; they can be sold to any other company.
Insight has been in the eye of a storm after an investigation published by The American Prospect magazine in December and reported by BenitoLink. The article quotes numerous former Insight employees who charged that Insight engages in fraudulent business practices and is buying troubled hospitals with false promises.
Supervisor Curro said that she preferred that if the hospital is not under local control, it should then be “the best partner possible in our region.”
Montalvo said that other companies in the health care industry may be interested in the hospital, but didn’t hear about the deal. “I had some discussions with a couple of the systems that are in the Bay Area about Hazel Hawkins,” Montalvo said. “We were left with the impression that perhaps because they didn’t have the right contact information some of the Bay Area systems feel as though they were not presented with this opportunity last year.”
Montalvo also mentioned the possibility of launching another referendum if the supervisors sense the community does not support the final agreement.
Three hours after the hospital was discussed at the Board of Supervisors meeting, the San Benito Health Care District circulated a press release defending its plans for the sale of the hospital. The district argued that Insight is “the best equipped” organization to meet its requirements and can ensure “a sustainable future for local healthcare.”
The press release does not directly address the issues raised by the supervisors; it thanks them for their concern and “passion” and says that the doors to future collaborations remain open. Bill Johnson, president of the Health Care District, struck a conciliatory note.
“Regardless of who owns the hospital, there are plenty of opportunities to collaborate with the County and we look forward to exploring those options,” Johnson said.
However, the press release concludes with a pointed reminder that the San Benito Health Care District is “an independent organization” from the county, elected to manage Hazel Hawkins and its assets. It also states that all decisions concerning the district are made by the elected board of directors.
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