Since Lincoln County Healthcare announced its decision to convert St. Andrews Hospital to an urgent care center, those opposed to the healthcare change have focused on a hospital decision-making process that excludes the public. 

Private nonprofit organizations, such as LCH, are not subject to Maine’s public access laws and are not required to open their meetings or documents to public scrutiny. A new proposal by Maine’s Attorney General could change that.

The Portland Press Herald reported on Tuesday that Maine Attorney General Janet Mills is drafting a bill that would require hospitals that receive 50 percent or more of their operating funds from state or federal sources, including Medicare and Mainecare, to open their board meetings to the public. 

Previous attempts to extend the state’s right-to-know laws to private hospital boards have not been successful with the Maine legislature.

How much the controversy surrounding the St. Andrews Hospital decision and the local task force’s efforts have influenced Mills’ proposal is not clear. However, members of the St. Andrews task force and volunteers have met with the Attorney General’s Office, have filed a legal position paper alleging a breach of trust and have encouraged area residents to seek the Attorney General’s help in keeping the local hospital status unchanged.

In an email and at last night’s task force meeting, Task Force Chairman Chuck Cunningham suggested that St. Andrews has played a role in the AG’s proposal. 

Cunningham wrote, “Attorney General Mills has recognized some of the issues which the St. Andrew's Task Force encountered while analyzing the proposal to transition St. Andrews Hospital to an urgent care facility. Closed-door meetings were held and the Board withheld minutes to those meetings.” 

Cunningham also said that when hospitals rely on public funds through Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, they have an obligation to the public. “Public funds should be treated in a public manner. The public deserves the right to know what’s going on in any entity that receives public funds,” Cunningham wrote.

Reached in Augusta, Representative Bruce MacDonald said he did not know how much Mills may have been influenced by the local situation, but said he had a good discussion with her about St. Andrews Hospital a few weeks back.

“I told her how dismayed the community was that these healthcare decisions had been made behind closed doors without community involvement,” MacDonald said. MacDonald has two bills of his own in the works that relate to St. Andrews, one to make bylaws and board meeting minutes of non-profit organizations public and a second to form a hospital administrative district for the Boothbay peninsula, contingent upon approval by local voters in a referendum.

More help from the AG

Each of these proposals may be debated by the legislature in coming months, but even if passed, none of them would alter decisions already made. It was clear at Tuesday’s task force meeting that although the local group is encouraged by Mills’ proposal, they are hoping for even greater involvement by the Attorney General.

At Tuesday’s task force meeting, Southport volunteer Jane Goode urged concerned residents to join in a letter writing campaign to request the AG’s help in keeping St. Andrews Hospital open. A form letter she developed can be obtained at the Boothbay town office, directly from Goode or at the task force’s website. “This AG thing is going to be powerful for us,” Goode said. 

Tom Hagan said contacting the Attorney General could help spur her to intervene on the community’s behalf. “These letters are important because the AG on her own could take action to see that the original hospital charter is properly fulfilled.”

In an email, Patty Seybold made it clear what action she would like from the Attorney General, “To redress the steps that have been taken in the dark, I think the Attorney General should put the fate of St. Andrews Hospital in the hands of a community-controlled Board of Trustees, rather than a board that is controlled by MaineHealth and Lincoln County Healthcare and has clear conflicts of interest,” Seybold wrote.

Sue Mello can be reached at 207-844-4629 or sumello@boothbayregister.com.