El Paso Children’s Hospital claims rent is inflated

a year of the two hospitals trying to work it out, that decision is the hands of a federal bankruptcy judge. the hearing continued this afternoon. abc-7’s ashlie rodriguez listened in and now joins us live. ashlie? estela — the children’s board has said it can’t make its rent to umc because its being overcharged. children’s says to qualify for government funding for indigent care when it first opened– it had to show it was paying rent. umc and children entered into a lease agreement, but children’s vice chair mary lou camarena said they inflated the rent amount because the higher the rent, the more funding the hospital could qualify for. now children’s wants the rent renegotiated and lowered– but umc says that rent pays for the building’s upkeep– and children’s is responsible for that. children’s is trying to make a strong case, because it doesn’t have the money to pay umc rent right now. while in bankruptcy, children’s is paying over a million per month for its service contracts. but if it also has to pay $860,00 per month in rent, county commissioners say the children’s hospital will be out of money before thanksgiving. the hearing is set to continue thursday. estela — back to you. by the way, children’s has 16 days to come up with a plan to make itself profitable. after that, the judge will begin hearing u-m-c’s plan to bring children’s under the county’s wing. an embattled school