By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
betty@wdnweb.com
Contributing Writer
The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners today will meet face-to-face for the first time with representatives of University Health Systems of Eastern North Carolina when commissioners ponder a UHS offer for a 30-year lease of the local health-care system.
During the meeting — scheduled for 2:45 p.m. in the auditorium of Building 8 on the Beaufort County Community College campus — the commissioners are expected to begin their review of last week’s recommendation by the Beaufort Regional Health System Board of Commissioners to accept the UHS offer.
The first portion of the meeting is to be held behind closed doors, according to County Manager Paul Spruill.
Spruill said Tuesday that he also expects senior UHS officials to attend the meeting and spend time in open session with the county commissioners.
The meeting could signal the end of a months-long, often-heated debate over the future of the financially-strapped BRHS.
The BRHS Board of Commissioners has recommended to the county commissioners a 30-year lease of the local health system by UHS for $30 million with the option to buy the property for an additional $10 million at the end of that lease. The most recent offer by UHS is an increase of $12 million over its initial offer.
Ultimately, the county commissioners will decide whether to accept, amend or reject the BRHS board’s recommendation.
While a vote on the offer could come today, most county officials have said they don’t expect a vote on the offer until they have had time to study it and get answers to some of their questions about its details.
Those details include the future of the certificate of need that places the medical center’s beds in Beaufort County, the issue of local representation on the UHS governing board, the future of the current health-system administrators and issues related to the purchase of health care-center property at the expiration of the lease, the commissioners said in separate interviews last week.
Meanwhile, local officials and residents continue to weigh in on the health-care debate, even as a decision nears.
The Beaufort County Mayors Association last week adopted a resolution in support of UHS, the latest group to endorse the Greenville-based health care provider.
The resolution, adopted Jan. 20, reads in part, “Whereas, University Health Systems will benefit our Beaufort Regional Health System by increasing its daily census, increasing its revenues, improving its bottom line and increasing the jobs in our hospital system; and whereas University Health Systems has significantly raised the value of their initial proposal … the Beaufort County Mayors Association affirms its support of University Health Systems as the primary health services provider to the residents of Beaufort County.”
The association includes mayors from across Beaufort County.
The association joins the Town of Washington Park, the BRHS medical staff and the Down East Seniors, among others, in signaling their support of an affiliation of the local health system with UHS.