January 29, 2010 -- Proposed cuts to TennCare would create a $50 million budget gap and a "shut-the-doors" scenario for the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, local officials said Thursday.

While the TennCare proposal has been public knowledge for more than a month, its impact on The Med  the $50 million deficit  was not confirmed until a hospital delegation returned from Nashville on Wednesday.

Med officials meeting with a task force Thursday described the effect of the proposed cuts as terminal.

"It's game over," interim CEO Claude Watts said.

"If we get hit with a $50 million cut it doesn't take a lot of math to figure out that the fat lady sings," Med board chairman Gene Holcomb said to the hospital's board Thursday morning.

Holcomb said The Med will take an aggressive posture against Governor Phil Bredesen's budget, which includes the cuts, when Bredesen unveils it in a speech Monday.

Watts said he made it known to state officials in Nashville meetings Wednesday that the hospital simply would not survive the proposed cuts.

"I told them that we're different," Watts said of both The Med and Nashville General Hospital, the capital's safety-net hospital. "Other hospitals may be hurt (by the cuts) but they won't die. The Med and Metro would just go away."

Med officials last year faced similar TennCare cuts that would have produced the same door-closing effects. However, the TennCare budget was saved with a $1.1 billion infusion from the federal stimulus package.

TennCare's new budget includes 15 percent in cuts proposed, but not realized, in the 2010 budget. That budget has been cut another seven percent to help the state seal a $1.2 billion revenue gap.

The new cuts would cap at $10,000 inpatient services for each patient and give TennCare recipients eight outpatient hospital visits, eight doctor visits and eight visits for lab and X-ray services.

Pregnant women and people under age 21 would have special exemptions from the limits.

The proposal also would completely cut occupational, speech and physical therapy services, as well as hospice care.

The threat of lethal cuts comes after The Med task force progressed toward its goal of $32 million in new and recurring funds on Monday with a $10 million annual revenue boost from the Shelby County Commission.

But the hospital is still looking for another $22 million annually.

The task force decided Thursday it will look to the community for possible solutions. The group will host four to six town-hall meetings across Memphis and Shelby County to build a dialogue with the community, officials said.

Also Thursday, The Med's board approved a resolution to move $5 million of its reserve funds from First Tennessee Bank to minority-owned Tri-State Bank.

A motion to move all $21 million of the core reserve funds to Tri-State sparked a heated debate during a committee meeting Wednesday.

Regional Medical Center at Memphis

 Permanent CEO Dr. Reginald Coopwood to take post on March 1.

 Coopwood is now in talks with a chief financial officer candidate for the hospital.

 Temporary officers from consultant FTI Cambio are scheduled to leave Memphis on Feb. 28.

More information: the-med.org

 Toby Sells: 529-2742