County Commissioners ask UMC to show them a budget that doesn’t subsidize El Paso Children’s

University Medical Center presented its budget for fiscal year 2016 in commissioners court Tuesday afternoon. The goal was no new taxes, and they achieved it. But the proposed budget is still not good enough for the county, specifically in regard to El Paso Children’s Hospital.

Last year, UMC absorbed some of Children’s bills. UMC knew Children’s could pay for its service costs, so UMC offered to pay them in return for the two working out a plan to get Children’s out of debt. But a year has passed, multiple mediations between the two have failed, and now there’s a lengthy bankruptcy hearing. As a result, the County and UMC are no longer feeling as generous.

“UMC was doing everything it could to help Children’s,” said County Judge Veronica Escobar.

Last year, the county approved UMC’s budget which included taxpayers subsidizing Children’s to the tune of about $1 million per month. But doing that this year would mean a higher effective tax rate, something the county refuses to even consider after a year of wasted time. The tax rate is currently at $0.22.

“They dragged it out, they dragged it out, mediation after mediation,” Escobar said. “Children’s would not agree to the terms that UMC had, even though Children’s was the entity in need.”

Now the clock is ticking. Children’s in the middle of bankruptcy, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on attorney fees, and the salary and travel costs of CEO Mark Herbers’s who lives in Chicago.

“And if all they do is run the clock out, that means the doors shut and the Chicago people and the Dallas people make a ton of money,” Escobar said. “And they will have squandered the last opportunity to save the hospital.”

Escobar said Children’s must come to the table with concessions. UMC has offered a plan to take Children’s under its wing and provide a financial safety net, a plan Children’s has repeated rejected, citing unfair terms and a loss of independence for the hospital. But without UMC and the El Paso taxpayer there to pay Children’s bills, Escobar hopes reality will set it.

“Their professionals have an obligation to tell the board ‘wake up’. You need to face reality,” Escobar said. “You’re going to shut your doors because you’re going to run out of money.”

Right now Children’s has been told by a judge to pay UMC that monthly million dollar bill. Escobar said that puts Children as running out of money by Thanksgiving. But Monday, the judge will decide if Children’s has to pay its rent, which is $860,000 a year.

If that’s the case, she said Children’s could close it’s doors in 60 days. UMC and the county will make a final decision on subsidizing Children’s again this year on Sept. 21.