Teche Regional Medical Center will keep serving the Morgan City area without interruption, but the company that operates the hospital will likely change, said an attorney for the hospital’s governing board.
The board of commissioners of St. Mary Parish Hospital Service District 2 met Wednesday in Morgan City.
LifePoint Health, a company based in Brentwood, Tennessee, operates Teche Regional Medical Center in Morgan City under a 40-year lease agreement with the hospital board.
“LifePoint has advised us that it is getting out of the health care market in Louisiana and in Morgan City,” said Nick LaRocca, an attorney who serves as the board’s general counsel.
LaRocca assured the public that the board is committed to keeping Teche Regional Medical Center operating in Morgan City regardless of which company manages the hospital.
“Teche is continuing to provide health care and will continue to do so during any transition period pending another company taking over,” LaRocca said.
“We’re pleased with the opportunity to explore arrangements with other companies so that we can furnish even better health care to the citizens of the district. And we’re confident that we can do so,” he said.
Scott Smith, Louisiana market CEO for LifePoint, spoke during Wednesday’s meeting. He is in charge of LifePoint’s hospitals in Morgan City, Eunice, Minden and Ville Platte. Smith served as CEO of Teche Regional from 2006-10.
Several weeks ago, LifePoint decided “to divest three of their four Louisiana facilities,” which include hospitals in Eunice, Minden and Ville Platte, to Allegiance Health Management based in Shreveport, Smith said.
Teche Regional was excluded from that agreement. LifePoint is in discussions to potentially transfer operation of Teche Regional to Allegiance, though, he said.
Allegiance is “very interested in Teche as much as they are the other three hospitals,” Smith said.
But Allegiance officials first want to meet with the hospital board to determine if the board wants Allegiance to operate Teche Regional, Smith said.
If the board should choose Allegiance as operator of Teche Regional, Allegiance has requested that Smith work for the company and take on management of some more of its hospitals, he said.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the board spent about an hour in executive session to discuss litigation titled PHC-Morgan City, L.P. v. Hospital Service District No. 2 of The Parish of St. Mary in 16th Judicial District Court.
PHC-Morgan City, L.P. is listed online as a subsidiary of LifePoint Heath Inc.
LifePoint allegedly hasn’t “paid any additional rent in two years claiming that it has sustained millions of dollars in losses,” LaRocca said.
That issue is still in litigation in St. Mary Parish.
“The (Louisiana) attorney general has opened up an investigation to determine whether LifePoint has complied with the lease and with state law. That investigation is ongoing,” LaRocca said.
In June 2001, the board that governed what was then Lakewood Medical Center in Morgan City entered into a letter of intent with Province Healthcare to lease the facility for 40 years. In December 2001, the name of the hospital was changed to Teche Regional Medical Center. Province Healthcare then merged with LifePoint in March 2005, according to the hospital’s website.
