The Riverside County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved an advance of $181,467 in property tax revenue for the Palo Verde Healthcare District (PVHD) to support continued hospital operations in Blythe.
“It’s just a shame that [if] this hospital, which provides health care for folks in that immediate area, shuts down what it will do, not only for healthcare, but what it will do for the economy, for the people overall,” Board Chair V. Manuel Perez said at the October 21 meeting. “It’s just a tough situation.”
County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen noted that this was, to his knowledge, the first time the county had provided a property tax advance to PVHD, though it was something that the county has done before.
“We do this with the Idyllwild Wildfire Protection District on an annual basis,” he said. “What this really does is advance the property tax revenue that is due to the special districts later in the year to an earlier time in the year to help them manage their cash flow issues.”
The advance was the latest in a series of efforts to stabilize the hospital that earlier this year suspended patient admissions, declared a fiscal emergency and, last month, filed for bankruptcy.
“As you aware, the district has suffered many financial setbacks in the years since covid, including financial recovery from the pandemic, limited medical staff, declining payer reimbursements, protracted litigation, rapid implementation of new software systems due to the litigation a cyber attack, rapid turnover in financial staff and all of this was referenced in the municipal services reviewed from [the Riverside County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO)],” Michael Rose, the district’s interim chief financial officer, said. “The final setback for the district occurred in late May, when the district’s bank exercised its right of early set off of its $3 million line of credit.”
Stay up to date with the latest from The Record. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter today!
Rose, who last week told LAFCO the district had roughly 10 days of cash on hand, said the district was currently operating with 7.4 days of available cash reserves, approximately $530,000.
“This advance of $181,467 would provide an additional 2.5 days of needed operating funds, but does not resolve the need for long term funding in order to balance the budget for fiscal year 2026,” Rose said. “That ask has been, and continues to be, $3 to $4 million.”
Rose said the district would continue with its reorganization and efficiency plans, along with its efforts to collect money due to the hospital and right-size the operation through the bankruptcy process, though Perez lamented that it took getting to this point for the district to be transparent about its finances.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “But, obviously, we’re doing what we can to work with our colleagues and our friends out in the Blythe area, as well as nonprofit organizations and other entities that work within healthcare, including our very own [Riverside Unified Health System] and the Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) to see what we can do to, obviously, ensure access to healthcare in the area.”
According to the staff report, the advance would be provided to the district as a loan that the district would have to repay, along with estimated interest of $2,226.19, prior to the end of the current fiscal year.
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet providing Riverside County with high-quality journalism free of charge. We’re able to do this because of the generous donations of supporters like you!