‘If we lose the license, we’re gone.’ New hurdle threatens Madera hospital’s future
A new concern has emerged for a group of citizens including doctors in Madera — the license for their community’s shuttered hospital is set to expire on May 26.
The Madera Community Hospital closed its doors in January and filed for bankruptcy in March.
Dr. Mohammad Ashraf, who is a specialist in cardiovascular disease, said the hospital owes a license fee of $100,000 before the license expires in the next three weeks.
According to a license detail search on the California Department of Health Care Access and Information, the effective date for the Madera Community Hospital license was May 27, 2022 and it’s set to expire on May 26. The license status is currently listed as “suspense.”
Ashraf said if the hospital loses its license, potential investors won’t be interested in buying it and reopening its much-needed facilities.
“If we lose the license, we’re gone,” Ashraf told The Bee.
Ashraf said he and other doctors and community members have been concerned over the licensing issue. If the hospital lost its license, he said, it would have to start over in applying for a new license.
“The requirements are so stringent,” he said, “that it would take at least a year to get the license. It’s a very lengthy process.”
Riley Walter, the bankruptcy attorney for the Madera hospital, agreed that if the hospital license expires it will make the situation more difficult. Walter said “regulators promised to ‘do everything to help,’ so we will see.”
“There is no doubt reopening will be more costly if the license expires,” he told The Bee. “MCH is making effort to have interested parties either support an extension or put up the money for the license. The state could be helpful in extending the deadline.”
Walter said it would be harder to reopen the hospital under the same rules before the loss of license.
Ashraf, and others who are worried about the Madera hospital losing its license, said there are four potential options, and they hope one of them will work out. They hope that either the state will provide a 90-day extension for the license; or that the $100,000 licensing fee can be paid through the hospital’s bankruptcy process; or that the state will waive the fee for at least six months; or that private citizens, including local doctors, will pitch in to raise the needed $100,000 in time to pay the licensing fee.
“The state has to do something,” Ashraf said. “People are dying.”
Since the closure of the Madera hospital, two of Ashraf’s patients with heart problems have died. One of the patients died en route to a hospital in Fresno and the other one died waiting for an ambulance at a Madera nursing home. In addition to Ashraf’s patients’ deaths, at least two other adult patients have died at Valley Children’s Hospital since January after being transported to the children’s hospital because it was the closest receiving hospital in the absence of an acute care hospital in Madera.
Responses from legislator’s office, governor’s office
Alexis Xochitl Manzanilla, communication’s director and legislative aide for Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria, D-Fresno, said as long as Assembly Bill/Senate Bill 112 is signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, “the state will take into account extending the license and providing financial assistance to the hospital.”
Soria “shares their concerns,” Manzanilla said of the Madera citizens including Ashraf, “and is working with the governor to find a solution to this licensing issue.”
AB/SB 112, which would create an emergency loan program with $150 million available for hospitals experiencing financial hardship across the state, was approved in both legislative houses last week. In February, Soria introduced AB 412 to establish the emergency loan program, but it was included into AB/SB 112 to speed up the process.
The piece of legislation is now pending Newsom’s approval and signature.
The Governor’s Office referred questions to state health officials who handle hospital licensing. A spokesperson with the California Department of Public Health said the department “intends to work” with the Madera hospital “regarding its state license as they work to identify a potential partner to reopen the hospital.” But the spokesperson would not say if an extension will be granted.
Ashraf said Trinity Health, owner and operator of Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, has already received $8 million through the Madera hospital’s bankruptcy process. Trinity Health had made a $15.4 million loan to the Madera hospital, making it the largest creditor in the bankruptcy.
“They (Saint Agnes) wanted their money first,” Ashraf said, before any other creditor got paid, which is why he and others are hoping the state will come to the rescue with the $100,000 licensing fee for the Madera hospital.
But even if the license issue is cleared, then there’s the hospital certification that would need to be addressed.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services certifies health care facilities for payments related to Medicare and Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California. It wasn’t immediately clear on Sunday what the certification status for the Madera hospital is or if it has been terminated.
This story was originally published May 7, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
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