State offers $50M for hospital system, with strings attached

Legislators say officials must ‘come together’ on several looming issues

But the same changes also bar any release of the money until the county government works out ‘‘a long-term, comprehensive solution” about how the struggling hospital system runs.

‘‘Our role is to provide the funding,” said Sen. Doug ‘‘J.J.” Peters (D-Dist. 23) of Bowie, one of eight county senators who supported the amendment. ‘‘Their role is to come together.”

Under the legislation, coming together includes settling several longstanding issues about how the system is run, including management by Dimensions Healthcare Corp.; a plan for hospital land currently owned by the county; and a solution to funding the health-care system’s debts and pension shortfalls.

A spokesman for County Executive Jack B. Johnson did not have a comment on the new proposal. A spokeswoman for the County Council did not return calls by press time.

The new budget offering comes as the county government and Dimensions have just begun to warm up to one another after months of wrangling over hospital leadership.

Late last week, officials for Johnson announced they had wired $3 million to the hospital system, the first payment made by Prince George’s since June.

For months, Johnson and Dimensions were locked in arguments over leadership of the hospital system. Johnson said the county would not pay Dimensions until it replaced several board members, and the hospital non-profit sued the county seeking $12 million in overdue funding.

Tensions cooled in September when the hospital system voted to replace its board chairman and dropped the lawsuit as a good-faith gesture. Johnson and hospital officials have since been meeting weekly.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said officials are ‘‘cautiously optimistic.”

‘‘We’re happy that we’re making progress toward a long-term solution,” said Suzanne Almalel, spokeswoman for Dimensions. ‘‘We’re just happy that the process is moving forward.”

The Senate budget changes are expected to be approved in the House of Delegates this week with little change, said Del. Doyle Niemann (D-Dist. 47) of Mount Rainier.

Niemann said the promise of funding allows Prince George’s County to work out an agreement with Maryland in the coming months, or lets the legislature propose a solution when it holds its regular 90-day session early next year.

‘‘When we come back in January, we’ll have to confront the question of if we want to act on our own,” he said.

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.