Proposed Fine bill could lead to sale of Parrish Medical Center
If Florida Rep. Randy Fine gets his way next session, new legislation could lead to the sale of Parrish Medical Center in Titusville and its other facilities to another health care entity — which could change the health care landscape of North Brevard County.
The chairman of Parrish’s board and the hospital’s CEO said officials there plan to fight the proposal, while other state legislators representing Brevard have doubts about such a bill and what its ramifications might be.
Fine said his bill is based on his belief that government should not be involved in business.
Parrish is Brevard County’s sole public hospital, established by the state of Florida as the North Brevard County Hospital District in 1958 as a single-story building with 28 beds. The hospital now has five stories as part of an $80 million, 371,000-square-foot complex with 210 beds, located on U.S. 1 at the north end of Titusville.
Under Fine’s proposed local bill, assets of the North Brevard County Hospital District would be put under the control of the County Commission. The North Brevard County Hospital District board that operates Parrish would be required to seek an independent appraisal of the hospital district’s assets, then put the assets up for sale to gauge interest from potential buyers. Proceeds from a possible sale would be transferred to the County Commission for use in county government operations.
As an initial step before that, the current nine-member North Brevard County Hospital District board would be replaced by a five-member board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Under the current setup, three members of the hospital board are appointed by the Brevard County Commission; three by the Titusville City Council; and an additonal three by the County Commission, subject to confirmation by the City Council.
Fine introduced his proposal during a meeting Wednesday of the seven-member, all-Republican Brevard County delegation to the Florida Legislature, which is the first step to getting a local bill like this one approved. Fine needed the support of a majority of the Brevard delegation to be allowed to formally file his legislation. He got that, through a 5-2 vote on Wednesday.
“In a world in which we have thriving nonprofit hospital chains … why do we need the government to be providing hospital services?” said Fine, who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee. “This is about shrinking government. This would require them to figure out what it’s worth.”
Fine said, under his proposal, if there are no reasonable bids to acquire Parrish, there would be no sale. Even if no interested parties came forward to purchase the hospital, the district’s board would still have had a change in composition, and be appointed by the governor, rather than the city and county governments that now choose its members.
Fine added that other hospital districts in the state have willingly opted to convert from being state-owned public hospitals by selling to private health care providers.
Fine’s proposal was approved 5-2, with Sen. Debbie Mayfield and Rep. Tyler Sirois opposed. Mayfield and Sirois said they were just seeing the proposal, and wanted to study it further before voting.