JJ Grow bill aims to dissolve Citrus County Hospital Board

It’s wind-down time for the Citrus County Hospital Board.

Created by legislative act in 1949 to oversee health care through what would become Citrus Memorial Hospital, the CCHB has outgrown its usefulness.

If a bill filed by Inverness Rep. JJ Grow becomes law, the CCHB will cease to exist on Oct. 1, 2026.

HB 4043 requires the hospital Board to dissolve and turn its remaining assets over to the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners.

The county would also oversee the 50-year lease with Hospital Corporation of America, which has operated what is now HCA Florida Citrus Hospital since 2013.

“We’ve been talking about this for six years,” hospital Board Chair Dr. Mark Fallows said in October when the Board voted to seek legislative dissolution.

Attorney William Grant, who has represented the CCHB for two decades, said a smooth transition will take several months.

“We want to be able to sunset in a way that’s consistent with the mission and the good work that all of you have done,” Grant said.

The CCHB existed in relative anonymity as a low-level taxing district for years. In 1987, its members, Governor appointees, created a separate nonprofit foundation Board to oversee hospital operations.

Those two boards eventually splintered when the foundation amended its bylaws in 2006 to increase its size, effectively placing hospital Board members in the minority.

Detailed reviews of the hospital’s finances showed significant instability.

“The hospital started getting deeper and deeper in debt,” Fallows told Citrus County Commissioners.

The CCHB and the Foundation Board agreed to seek bids to either sell or lease the hospital. They received bids from three for-profit hospitals and one nonprofit and, in 2013, decided with HCA on a 50-year, $131 million lease.

The CCHB stopped collecting taxes in 2013, but its role did not end. Lawmakers in 2014 created the Citrus County Community Charitable Foundation to disburse interest payments from lease proceeds to meet the medical needs of Citrus County citizens. Its members represent a cross-section of Citrus County, including two elected officials.

More recently, the CCHB settled a dispute with the Agency for Health Care Administration. AHCA sought $5 million in Medicaid overpayments to CMH over 10 years; CCHB reduced that amount to $650,000.