Jeffco Commission Approves UAB-Led Authority for Cooper Green
The Jefferson County Commission voted Thursday to enter into an agreement with UAB to manage operations at Cooper Green Mercy Health Services. Jefferson County has owned and operated the local indigent care clinic for more than 40 years.
The new agreement would create a healthcare authority led by UAB to manage Cooper Green. The authority would oversee spending of the Indigent Care Fund, which is generated from tax revenue to provide health care for the county’s poorest residents. The county would still collect that tax revenue and pay for operational expenses at Cooper Green.
The contract was approved Thursday with a vote of three to two. Commissioners Jimmie Stephens, Joe Knight and Steve Ammons voted in favor of the resolution. Commissioners Lashunda Scales and Sheila Tyson opposed it.
Commission President Jimmie Stephens said the agreement would improve care for patients at Cooper Green.
“This is going to be a great day for our indigent in Jefferson County,” Stephens said. “They will be able to receive state-of-the-art care from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.”
The commission approved the idea to create a healthcare authority last year. Stephens says since January, commissioners have discussed the contract that was approved Thursday in numerous executive sessions.
Commissioners Scales and Tyson asked to delay the vote to amend the agreement. They want to add a resolution to keep Cooper Green employees on the county’s payroll and guarantee no changes to employee pension plans. The current contract states that employees must reapply for their positions under the new UAB-led authority. Scales has also expressed concern about financial agreements included in the contract. The agreement outlines a plan for the county to finance a new Cooper Green clinic in the future and allows UAB to purchase the current clinic, should it go on the market.
“I just think that we didn’t explore all of the options properly before we took this kind of vote.” Scales said.
The county will now enter into a due diligence phase to approve a final contract with UAB. County attorney Theo Lawson said changes can still be made to the agreement.
“There are a series of things that will come before this commission before this is finally closed on,” Lawson said.
Officials say negotiations could last several months and proposed changes to management at Cooper Green will not interrupt any services at the clinic.
Gov. Kay Ivey urges delay on PBS decision by public TV board
The Republican governor sent a letter to the Alabama Educational Television Commission ahead of a Nov. 18 meeting in which commissioners were expected to discuss disaffiliation.
A proposed Bessemer data center faces new hurdles: a ‘road to nowhere’ and the Birmingham darter
With the City Council in Bessemer scheduled to vote Tuesday on a “hyperscale” data center, challenges from an environmental group and the Alabama Department of Transportation present potential obstacles for the wildly unpopular project.
Birmingham Museum of Art’s silver exhibit tells a dazzling global story
Silver and Ceremony is made up of more than 150 suites of silver, sourced from India, and some of their designs.
Mentally ill people are stuck in jail because they can’t get treatment. Here’s what’s to know
Hundreds of people across Alabama await a spot in the state’s increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in providing care for people who are charged with crimes but deemed too mentally ill to stand trial. But seven years since the federal agreement, the problem has only worsened.
Ivey appoints Will Parker to Alabama Supreme Court
Parker fills the court seat vacated by Bill Lewis who was tapped by President Donald Trump for a federal judgeship. The U.S. Senate last month confirmed Lewis as a U.S. district judge.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
