Sen. Vincent Fort: Emory Should Write Off Grady Debt

(10/31/07) State Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, a leading Democratic voice on Grady, says he’d like to see Emory “write off” the $45 million it says its medical school is owed by financially-struggling Grady Hospital.

He also says he supports elements of two resolutions pending before the DeKalb County commission that seek changes in the working relationship between the charity hospital and Emory, which provides most of Grady’s doctors.

“Forgiving of the current Grady debt that Emory has is essential,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “They ought to write it off.”

He said the current Emory-Grady contract is “a sweetheart deal” for the medical school. “It needs to be renegotiated for everybody involved.”

A Republican resolution pending before the DeKalb commission calls for a new contract. A Democratic resolution before the same body proposes different changes in the relationship. DeKalb and Fulton counties operate Grady through an authority.

Ron Sauder, an Emory spokesman, said Wednesday that Fort’s comments blur the issue of whether Grady, bleeding red ink, will survive.

"In addition to the ongoing subsidy that Emory provides Grady, Emory has already forgone millions of dollars in forgiven interest and lost earnings on the outstanding debt that Grady has incurred,” he said. “Grady has a contractual and moral obligation to pay Emory for the medical services provided by Emory. A large portion of the debt is in fact required by federal law to be paid to Emory since it was given to Grady by the federal government specifically for funding of residents provided by Emory.”

He added, "It is neither in Emory's nor Grady's long-term interest to lose sight of the fundamental issues at hand - talking about debt forgiveness does just that."

Fort said that the Grady Coalition, composed of Grady staff, community activists and members of the faith community, has concluded “there needs to be a re-doing of the contract between Emory and Grady,” particularly to address issues such as how Emory accounts for the time its doctors and doctors-in-training actually spend at Grady, and whether the cost to Grady is fair, given that Emory Medical School touts its relationship to Grady as a major plus for students it wishes to attract to its classes.

A resolution introduced by Elaine Boyer, the lone Republican on the seven-member DeKalb Commission, calls for Emory to write off undocumented billings and assume liability coverage which Grady now pays for Emory doctors while they are working at Grady. It also complains that the current contract is one-sided because it fails to take into account the value which Grady provides to Emory by providing a teaching venue for its medical students.

Emory’s Sauder has said previously that the resolution “has it exactly backwards.”

“Emory actually provides a life-giving subsidy to Grady. Grady receives cutting edge medical services for its patients at a steeply discounted rate, far below market value. But even at steep discount, Grady has been unable to meet its financial obligations to Emory and Morehouse,” he said.