What Montanans Are Reading: “Sheehy’s Plan Hurts Rural Hospitals”

Former CFO of hospitals in Whitefish, Dillon, and Miles City speaks out about how Sheehy’s dangerous plan to privatize health care would shutter rural hospitals

Helena, MT – The former CFO of hospitals in Whitefish, Dillon, and Miles City, Jim Alderson, penned an op-ed calling out Tim Sheehy for his dangerous plan to privatize health care. 

The op-ed ran in local papers across the state and highlighted how under Sheehy’s plan for fully privatized health care, rural hospitals would lose tax exemption status, hospital foundations would disappear, non-profitable medical procedures would stop, and hospitals would close. 

Jim is also a retired CPA and the former president of the Montana chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association. 

Read more from Jim below. 

Clark Fork Valley Press - Mineral Independent: Sheehy’s plan hurts rural hospitals
By Jim Alderson
September 18, 2024

• I am a retired CPA and former CFO of hospitals in Whitefish, Dillon and Miles City. In addition I am a past president of the Montana chapter of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
   

• Tim Sheehy’s plan to privatize hospitals in Montana will have draconian effects. Local hospitals will no longer have a 501 (c) (3) tax exemption. Thus hospitals will be forced to pay property taxes on land, buildings and equipment. And hospital foundations will go away, as contributions will not be deductible.
   

• Under private ownership, the hospital will have to pay a handsome return on investment. Of course, unprofitable services will be most likely discontinued. And certainly, many hospitals would close.
   

• But Montana citizens should not just take my word for it. Call your local hospital board members and administrators and request them to calculate the effect on the hospital if the tax exemption goes away and Medicare and Medicaid cease to exist.
   

• Montanans love their not-for-profit hospitals. It would be a travesty if Tim Sheehy gets his way and they all get taken over by Wall Street firms.