Cabinet for Health and Family Services Changes Regulation In Effort to Help Greenview Hospital After Losing Recent Battle Over Ambulance Service

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has changed a regulation following Greenview Hospital’s recent defeat in its attempt to establish an ambulance service in Warren County. The Cabinet’s changes improperly favor TriStar Greenview Hospital, an HCA-affiliated, for-profit, Tennessee-based corporation. The newly amended regulation brazenly seeks to remove the obstacles Greenview encountered when its Certificate of Need application was denied on January 4, 2019.

“Quite honestly, we are at a loss for words,” said Wade Stone, Executive Vice President of Med Center Health. “The Cabinet unnecessarily took aim at Warren County last September by crafting special legislation to benefit Greenview. It failed to get the wording right the first time, so now it is continuing its assault on Warren County and Med Center Health by amending the regulation. The Cabinet is dead set on helping Greenview feed market share to its affiliated hospitals in Tennessee under the disguise of addressing a non-existent ‘public health crisis.’ It’s baffling at best, and we question the real motives behind such behavior.”

Med Center Health has a lawsuit pending in Franklin Circuit Court which challenges the constitutionality of the regulation issued last September. Kentucky law prohibits the creation of laws and regulations that are written for the purpose of benefiting a specific organization.

“The Cabinet’s statement accompanying the new regulation point blank admits that the Cabinet is actively trying to interfere in the CON process, a process that is supposed to be free from political interference. Both the original and amended regulations were developed for the sole purpose of benefiting one particular corporation, Greenview. Not only do these regulations threaten to disrupt what is regarded as one of the very best ambulance service operations in the Commonwealth, but they expose Warren County taxpayers to a substantial tax burden that has been avoided for nearly forty years.” Stone concluded, “We look forward to presenting evidence of these illegal actions by the Cabinet in a court of law, where political influence is checked at the door,” said Stone.

Cabinet's Amended Regulation 01/15/19

Cabinet Denies TriStar Greenview’s Ambulance Service Application

Today, the independent hearing officer assigned to hear the case involving TriStar Greenview’s certificate of need (CON) application to initiate a second ambulance service in Warren County issued a Final Order denying the application. TriStar Greenview will therefore not be able to proceed with its proposed ambulance service. The Final Order (copy attached) cancels the CON hearing scheduled for January 7-10 and 16, 2019.

“We are very pleased with the hearing officer’s decision,” said Wade Stone, Executive Vice President of Med Center Health. “The decision is very well-reasoned, and we are relieved that neither our community nor our Medical Center EMS service will be adversely affected by TriStar Greenview’s proposal,” said Stone.

Stone added, “We will continue reaching out to officials in Frankfort now that the CON application has been denied and hope they will be receptive to our position. We will convey to those officials that our committed staff and responders are offering an award-winning service to the residents of Warren County without local taxpayer subsidization that so many other Kentucky counties experience. A second ambulance service will only create confusion with dispatch, negatively affect our existing service and possibly lead to the need for taxpayer subsidy.”

Medical Center EMS is an award-winning ambulance service. It is the only ambulance service in Kentucky accredited by both the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS) and the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch® (IAED™) - both of which are gold standards within the industry.

Stone concluded, “As always, we will focus our efforts and energies toward improving the health and well-being of the communities we serve while respecting patient choice.”