Floyd County voters OK organization change to let medical center collect taxes

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Voters gave the Floyd County Medical Center an overwhelming go-ahead to organize under a different chapter of the Iowa code during the election Tuesday.

The result will be a governing board of trustees that is elected instead of being appointed, and that board will have the authority to levy property taxes within the county.

The public measure won by a 1,717 to 809 vote, a more than 2-to-1 margin, after a campaign by a hospital task force that said the hospital needs the ability to collect taxes because of changes in the management of the state’s Medicaid program, as well as other changes that have affected its bottom line.

Rod Nordeng, Floyd County Medical Center administrator, said all the people associated with the hospital were “pleased and humbled” by the support of the county residents in the election.

He said the decision to seek Chapter 347 organization “was not taken lightly,” but was required by financial changes beyond the medical center’s control.

Since Medicaid was turned over to private management several years ago, the hospital has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year because the management companies have reduced their reimbursement rates, Nordeng had said previously.

The latest annual figure shows the county hospital received $742,000 less in Medicaid reimbursements than previous years. In addition, the private insurer Blue Cross/Blue Shield is also reducing reimbursement rates from previous years, resulting in another almost $248,000 reduction.

The hospital had told potential voters it plans on collecting $500,000 a year in property taxes once it gets that authority.

Almost all other county hospitals in the state have been collecting property taxes for many years. For example, Mitchell County collected more than $753,000 in 2018-19 for the Mitchell County Regional Health Center in Osage.

“With support from county residents we will continue to be a vital part of Floyd County for generations to come as a wonderful independent rural medical center,” Nordeng said Tuesday evening after the results were in.

“County residents agreed that it’s vital to keep their health care close to home,” he said.