Med Beat: Lee County buys back its hospital
This story was reported with the support of the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism, a program of the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism.
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The Lee County Regional Medical Center in Pennington Gap was closed by Wellmont Health System in 2013. The hospital authority in 2017 partnered with Americore Health to reopen it. That partnership is coming to an end. The hospital authority is now in talks with Ballad Health.
(Photo Credit: Heather Rousseau/The Roanoke Times)
The Lee County Hospital Authority on Friday reclaimed ownership of its medical center from a Florida company that failed to reopen the hospital.
The authority’s new health partner provided the financing to debts that had been placed against the property during Americore Health’s ownership.
Lee County has been trying to reopen the hospital since Wellmont Health Systems closed it in 2013. County supervisors created the authority the following year and agreed to loan it $1.5 million to buy the property from Wellmont. That debt remains with the property and it is expected to be repaid.
Meanwhile, Ballad Health, which was formed when Wellmont and Mountain States merged a year ago, agreed to provide up to $2.1 million in financing to satisfy Americore’s debtor so that ownership returns to the county.
The authority and Ballad are still working out the details of the new alliance that will require Ballad to operate a hospital.
[This story was originally published by The Roanoke Times.]