Lee County Commission solicits FTC input on proposed hospital

LEESBURG — Lee County commissioners are asking the Federal Trade Commission to weigh in on their effort to build a new hospital.

Commissioners voted at their Tuesday night meeting to approve a resolution asking the FTC to comment on Lee County’s hospital and its certificate of need application with Georgia regulatory officials.

Approval of the CON application is needed for Lee County to move forward with its plans to build a 60-bed hospital, plans that have drawn opposition from the Dougherty County Commission. Lee County commissioners agreed Tuesday to send a new letter to the Dougherty board accusing Dougherty commissioners of “exclusively seeking to protect the Phoebe Hospital’s interests” and of using taxpayer dollars to hire lawyers and consultants to prepare county opposition.

According to Lee County Attorney Jimmy Skipper, who drafted the letter to Dougherty commissioners, the hiring of an Atlanta law firm to conduct what Dougherty officials called an impact study goes beyond the scope of what Dougherty commissioners approved. The scope of approval, Skipper contends, was only to conduct a study to determine any impact Lee’s proposed hospital might have on Dougherty County.

Skipper’s letter states: “These circumstances beg the question of why Dougherty County is opposing this project. By any objective measure, it appears that the sole purpose of Dougherty County’s opposition is to prevent competition for acute care hospital services (in the area where no competition currently exists) and to preserve the Phoebe Hospital’s exclusive hold on the market.

“To add insult to injury, Dougherty County is using thousands upon thousands of its taxpayer dollar (tens of thousands actually) to pay Atlanta lawyers and consultants to prepare the opposition, which your Board of Commissioners did not vote to do. In a bitter twist of irony, if successful, the taxpayer-funded opposition will prevent the very same taxpayers (i.e. Dougherty County residents and businesses) from experiencing the benefits of competition, which include paying less for quality hospital services.”

In the letter, Skipper argues Dougherty County commissioners are spending taxpayer money to conduct a study that is not necessary.

“Finally, it should be noted that the CON application for the new hospital was filed under a regulatory exception to the hospital impact standard,” the letter concludes. “Thus, the Department (of Community Health) will not be evaluating the new hospital to determine its impact on existing hospitals.

“For this additional reason, it is difficult to understand why Dougherty County is spending taxpayer dollars to conduct analysis, which are not even relevant to the department’s review of the new hospital’s CON application. Spending taxpayer funds for this purpose is also difficult to grasp since Dougherty County does not even have a legal standing to participate in any appeal regarding the new hospital’s CON application.”

Lee Commission Vice Chairman Billy Mathis said Dougherty commissioners voted to conduct a study to determine the impact Lee County’s hospital would have on Dougherty County at a cost of $35,000, but said the scope of that agreement has been exceeded without approval.

“They violated that approval. They didn’t fulfill their own resolution. They exceeded it,” Mathis said.

In his letter, Skipper said Lee County’s proposed hospital should not be competition to Phoebe, which he said has 691 beds.

“Phoebe Putney survived the competition from Palmyra Park Hospital, which had a total of 248 licensed beds and was literally right down the street from Phoebe, for nearly 40 years without any negative impact on its ability to generate sufficient revenue to provide health care services to its patients,” Skipper wrote.

In the letter, Skipper says Phoebe’s share of the market for acute care in Lee County is currently 85 percent and that it is 90 percent in Dougherty County.

“Given these incredibly high market shares,” Skipper wrote, “Lee County’s small 60-bed community hospital will not have any impact, let alone a negative impact, on Phoebe hospitals. This is especially true since Phoebe will undoubtedly capture its share of new hospital admissions as population grows.”

Skipper wrote that Dougherty County’s opposition to the Lee County hospital is inconsistent with economic development and with job creation.

“If successful, the opposition will make our respective counties less attractive to existing and new businesses, both of which choose areas where there is patient choice and competition for affordable hospital services, to the detriment of those who funded the opposition,” Skipper wrote. “How many businesses have left Dougherty County due, in a large part, to the high cost of health care in your county?”

Commissioner Rick Muggridge said he believes FTC officials want to comment on the situation.

“The Federal Trade Commission is fully aware of what’s going on regarding the opposition to the Lee County hospital,” Muggridge said. “They want to comment. It is OK for them to comment.

“We don’t know what they will say, but we talked to them again today (Tuesday), and tonight we are ready to send a formal resolution which invites them to make their comments to the Georgia Department of Community Health.”

He said it is appropriate for the FTC to get involved.

“In our initial inquiry, we were told that the FTC can make and file comments with respect to our CON application,” Muggridge said.

The Lee commissioners approved a resolution arguing that action by Dougherty County commissioners could be in violation of an FTC order on March 15, 2015 that prohibits Phoebe from opposing a new hospital in the immediate area. Dougherty commissioners, in their formal notice of objection to the issuance of the CON to Lee County, requested that DCH obtain information from Phoebe.

Skipper asserts in his letter to Dougherty commissioners that the FTC has prohibited Phoebe from directly submitting “objections to or negative comments about” a new hospital to the DCH.

“The FTC also prohibited Phoebe Hospitals from indirectly submitting such objections and negative comments through third parties, such as Dougherty County, and any violation of the FTC order could result in civil penalties being levied by the FTC,” Skipper said.

Contacted Wednesday, Dougherty Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas said he had not seen the Lee board’s letter and was thus not prepared to comment on it.