South Alabamian

Struggling T’ville hospital gets $1 million from unknown benefactor




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An anonymous donor has pledged $1 million to the Thomasville Regional Medical Center as the hospital struggles with financial troubles and lobbies for Covid-relief funding it said it should have received but didn’t.

“Naturally, we are excited that this individual and others are so supportive of what we are trying to do that they are willing to put money toward the effort,” Thomasville Mayor Day said. He was on his seventh trip to Washington, D.C. since January to work on the problem when he learned of the donation last week.

In addition to the large donation, Day said others have contributed, too, and the hospital has a nonprofit Thomasville Health Care Foundation that allows for tax-exempt donations.

The hospital has said, compared to other hospitals of its size, it should have received $7 million in Covid-relief funds but got nothing. That is because the Covid pandemic hit in the spring of 2020 just as the hospital opened for business. Federal rules for the money required that allocations be based on data from 2019 and the new hospital obviously didn’t have that.

Day said that was an unintended oversight that could be fixed by allowing allocations to be based on budget estimates.

The hospital is privately-owned but with a big public investment in it via the city of Thomasville’s pledge of approximately $20 million in sales tax revenues over a 30-year period to help pay for the $40 million facility.

Covid impacted health care and hospitals everywhere, canceling elective surgeries and procedures that are revenue generators. That was what Covid-relief monies were for; to shore up lost revenues.

Day has earned the support of Alabama’s full congressional delegation and of Don Williamson, president of the Alabama Hospital Association, who wrote a letter to President Joe Biden explaining the value of the hospital to the rural area it serves.

Day said despite the support, changes have not been made to federal regulations that would allow for funding. It has been close a few times but various issues kept it from happening. Day said a simple in-house fix by the federal Health and Human Services agency could solve the problem or Congress could also fix it via legislation.

Washington is a funny place, Day observed. Everyone knows the problem and everyone knows it should be fixed but no one will step forward and “pull the trigger,” as Day put it.

He said he was optimistic, though and that progress had been made this week. It may take several weeks or months to fix, but he is confident it will be fixed.

“Everyone is fighting for us. That is humbling and encouraging,” Day said.

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