To the Editor:
I fear for the existence of Hancock Regional Hospital. It has been sued by the Indianapolis Star for failure to open its books to the public even though it is a public hospital whose records should be open.
The Star is interested in what the hospital has done with the money that it has taken from the 31 nursing homes that it bought for the purpose of receiving extra Medicaid money. That is money intended for governmental units that truly own nursing homes and was never intended for someone who bought them on paper and has not used the money for the benefit of those in nursing homes as Congress intended.
When the Star wins the lawsuit, our hospital will likely be required to return the money. It will be unable to do so because it has been spending the money as fast as it comes in, and probably has even sold bonds in expectation of repaying them with future Medicaid revenue.
As we watch, our hospital is speculating with a lot of the money on developing the land west of its Mt. Comfort/I-70 facility by competing with private enterprise to develop land to the west. The hospital knows how to deliver medical services, but they will likely lose the competition with private developers who know so much more about developing. And if the predicted recession arrives, then all of the developers may go under, and we will likely lose our hospital.
Even worse, the hospital plans to spend even more of that Medicaid money to combine four of its side businesses into one facility just south of the main office of the Greenfield Banking Co. Those four businesses are doing just fine where they are currently located.
So please stop speculating with tax money that was never intended for these purposes. The land upon which the hospital is built was donated by Fannie Andis and in its early years was built by taxpayer dollars. Please don’t bankrupt our hospital with wasteful spending on side projects with money never intended for that purpose.
Warren Hiser
Greenfield
