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Tax Rate Dispute Raises Retiree Fears About Hospital and Ambulance Services

Posted on: Sunday, 25 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By F.A. Krift, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas

Jun. 25--HEMPHILL -- The older folks play dominoes in the county courthouse's shadows. Senior bass fishermen troll Toledo Bend Reservoir's 181,000 acres for trophies. Deep summer tans reflect hours of leisure.

Southeast Texas retirees come to Sabine County to quietly settle into old age. Some came because a local hospital and 911 ambulance service brought a sense of security.

But that medical refuge seems to be under attack and the attractive, gentle country living has heated up. Justified or not, residents fear recently elected hospital district board members are on their way through mismanagement to closing their 25-bed health-care facility, Sabine County Hospital.

They are afraid the county will become another rural community with limited health care, joining Newton and Silsbee on the once-had-a-hospital list.

On May 13, 53.3 percent of those who went to the polls voted to roll back a hospital tax increase, a decision that already has cut the number of ambulances placed within the county by half. And residents are anxious that their hospital could be next.

The majority spoke against the tax hike. Then the county split.

Formerly sleepy hospital district board meetings quickly tumbled out of hand with standing-room-only crowds of gray-haired retirees and medical staff pumping up the sweaty room's temperature.

Hundreds of a very rowdy minority feel as if they're under siege and vulnerable while the silent majority sits idly outside. Out-of-order speaking, shouting and jeering have turned otherwise tedious, poorly attended monthly gatherings at the hospital into an Old West gunfight of words.

"I've lived here, gosh, since the middle '60s, and I've never seen this community so divided," said Edith McCauley, the hospital administrator.

The problem

Last year, the hospital board took over the area's 911 ambulance services from the county. Accepting the emergency service contract eventually burdened the hospital district with a yearly $475,000 subsidy payment, too much for the 11.529 cents per $100 tax rate and hospital revenue.

In order to pay for the service, board member Earl Willis said a tax increase was the best long-term solution. The hospital operated with a $2 million reserve, but chopping into the financial security blanket seemed unnecessary and put the hospital at risk if an economic emergency arose.

"If you continue to pull money out of those reserves, you're going to deplete the reserves and you're going to have to answer the question again," Willis said.

The old board passed the tax increase, raising rates to 22.414 cents per $100 and incensing constituents.

The backlash came quickly from landowners, who typically hate tax increases. The exasperated voters petitioned, pulling together enough signatures for a rollback proposition, which passed. Four hospital district board positions also were on the ballot, and the anti-tax majority won another victory as only two board holdovers remained: Phil Yocom, who won re-election, and Willis.

Three new anti-tax candidates -- Blaine Owens, Chester Cox and Wendall Barlow -- quickly ruled the board after the election, bringing instant panic to the pro-tax community. Questions snowballed. How do they expect to pay for the ambulance service? How do they expect to keep the hospital afloat? What will happen if I get injured?

Board decisions seemed rash to gathered dissenters from the new majority. NorthStar Paramedic Services, knowing a rollback was likely, agreed to a letter-of-intent instead of a five-year contract after winning the contract last year. That intent agreement ends June 30, which forced the newly sworn-in board members to act quickly on the county's emergency service.

Thursday, the board voted 3-2, with Owens, Cox and Barlow in favor, to let STAT Care EMS take over emergency services.

The provider change wasn't the issue, however. In order to save $175,000 a year, the board reduced the ambulance units within the county to one with a backup stationed in Jasper County.

"We thought we had more time to look at this, but we had to act," Owens said. "I had to move. I could not sit around and wait. I wasn't willing to do that and perhaps leave us without an ambulance."

After the decision, the Pineland Volunteer Fire Department rebelliously walked out of the meeting. Retired resident Jamie Payne, 72, wondered why the new board members weren't calmly sliding into their new roles.

"Put out a little honey," he said.

Dr. Stan Packard, one of two hospital emergency physicians, questioned the thought process behind the money-saving action. The decision could raise the hospital's liability insurance and outstrip the savings plan.

"How much is a life worth?" Packard asked. "How many years of $175,000? I like every member and I think I can work with every one of them, but I think a bad decision was made."

The fear

About 25 percent of Sabine County's population is 65 years or older, double the national average, according to 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data.

With 2,610 of its 10,469 residents older than 65, Sabine County surpasses surrounding counties as well. For example, 13.6 percent of Jefferson County's population is in the senior citizen category. Only Sabine County's neighbor, San Augustine County, comes close with 21.4 percent being 65 or older.

Pineland Fire Chief Joseph Lane, 31, estimated 70 percent of the county is retired.

Furthermore, 40.3 percent of Sabine County households have at least one senior citizen. The United States average is 23.4 percent. The white-haired retirees come from Jefferson and Orange counties, searching for a slower East Texas lifestyle and a lakefront breeze.

Willis, 67, retreated north in 1995. Now, he wonders aloud if this area's viability is in trouble. Without expanded health care, why would the elderly from Beaumont or Vidor or Silsbee move here?

"I'm scared," Willis said. "I came to this community because there was health-care facilities here. I had a quadruple bypass, and since I've been here, I've had five stents put in. ... My entire lifelong thing was to retire up in East Texas."

Without Sabine County Hospital, he doesn't think he would have moved here.

Susan Cowgill runs Hemphill Hearing Center, an aging customer-dominated business. She's fielded calls from the aged, who are asking whether adequate health care is available if they move there.

"If they don't have the minimum (health care), they're going to leave," Cowgill said. "Property prices will decline. Businesses like mine will close."

The solution

Willis urged the new board members to settle down and patiently work with the hospital staff before rushing into cutting costs.

"If we don't get off the track we're on, we're going to be forced to reduce services," Willis said. "And the next step after reducing services is you shut down."

Owens understands the community has split, and the aggressive minority has pinpointed him as well as Cox and Barlow as the culprits behind a perceived plot to close the hospital.

But the charges are unfounded, he said, and well off base.

"I don't have any indication it won't be here," said Owens, 69 and retired. "I'm here to tell you that five board members are bound and determined to have a hospital here in Sabine County."

In time, the county will come back together, he said.

And bound together with a functioning hospital, the county can remain attractive to retirees, who look north for big bass and a calm, peaceful lifestyle.

fakrift@beaumontenterprise.com

(409) 880-0728

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Beaumont Enterprise

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