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The following press release was sent to the Times by Terrebonne General Health System:
To protect the public interest of ensuring viable and self-sustaining hospital service districts statewide, and to support the healthcare of its community and the economic stability of the people and employees of Terrebonne Parish, Hospital Service District No. 1 of the Parish of Terrebonne (Terrebonne General) filed suit against Thibodaux Regional Health System and Lafourche Hospital Service District No. 3 (collectively, Thibodaux Regional) to require Thibodaux Regional to close its facilities in Terrebonne Parish.
This court filing is the appropriate legal action in response to Thibodaux Regional’s violation of the state law that regulates hospital service districts. State law prohibits a hospital service district such as Thibodaux Regional from directly or indirectly operating medical facilities in another hospital service district’s territory without consent. Neither Terrebonne General nor the government of Terrebonne Parish consented to Thibodaux Regional’s infringement on Terrebonne General’s geographic territory.
The lawsuit filed by Terrebonne General seeks to end Thibodaux Regional’s prohibited encroachment into Terrebonne Parish and compel them to close a clinic and an urgent care center that are currently operating in Terrebonne Parish in violation of state law.
Thibodaux Regional has publicly stated that it was changing its status from a hospital service district to a non-profit corporation. However, the use of a nonprofit corporation promoted by Lafourche Hospital Service District No. 3 to expand beyond its allowable territory is not permissible, as the Attorney General’s Office consistently opines that the law does not allow a hospital service district to do indirectly what it is prohibited from doing directly.
“We recognize what drives our colleagues at Thibodaux Regional, but ambition doesn’t upstage the law,” said Phyllis Peoples, Terrebonne General President and CEO. “Thibodaux Regional’s action violates the fundamental purpose of hospital service districts. And we are aware of the law, because when Terrebonne General attempted to expand into the territory of Lafourche Hospital Service District No. 2, a Louisiana appellate court ruled that such non-consensual out- of-territory expansion was prohibited by state law.”
“Terrebonne General has been serving the health care needs of its community since 1954, and as the largest community-based health system in southeast Louisiana, Terrebonne General understands growth,” Peoples said. “There are a great many attractive, reachable markets for us too. But hospital service district hospitals—like Terrebonne General and Thibodaux Regional—operate under specific state laws designed to serve communities of a specific geography to ensure that each community in the state has a viable and self-sustaining health care system for the residents of that district.
Unauthorized activities outside the defined boundaries are a disservice to the communities we serve and threaten the region’s economic stability. If a hospital service district wants to expand, it can, but only by following the process for obtaining consent of the impacted hospital service district and its governing body. We can all thrive with fair competition, but actions outside of the law disrupt healthcare and its delivery systems and violate the purpose for which these institutions were created.
Of course, that is not to say that patients don’t have freedom of choice. Any patient can decide to obtain their healthcare from wherever they choose. A patient is free to cross a hospital service district boundary to see any doctor or hospital they choose.
What the law prohibits, however, is a neighboring hospital service district from directly or indirectly crossing over its boundary into the geographic territory of another hospital service district without consent, and operating health care facilities in that other geographic territory to improve its own bottom line at the expense of its neighbors.
