Metro Wants to Revamp Indigent Health Care

With the announcement that it’s hired a consultant and established an advisory board, the Nashville Mayor’s office signaled Tuesday it’s ready to talk about a new way to pay for the city’s safety net hospital.

Nashville General Hospital has long provided care for the city’s poor, a business model which consistently loses money.

The city says it’s going to forgive a 32-million dollar line of credit, but Metro Finance Director Rich Riebeling it will still subsidize the Hospital Authority over 40-million dollars in the next fiscal year.

“I think generally speaking, a lot of cities have determined that they can’t really be in the hospital business…I don’t know what the right answer is for Nashville and obviously that’s not what we’re proposing or suggesting but we think we need some outside help to look at it.”

But coming up with an alternative is difficult, says Councilman Erik Cole, when the problem is so much bigger than one hospital.

“And I hope that’s part of the coming conversation is how do you also have the other players in the health care capital of the world have some investment in the game. And it’s going to take that if we’re ever going to reduce that subsidy.”

The Boston-based health care consulting firm, John Snow, Inc, expects to have a report finalized in about four months.