ABOUT WSHD

The Winnie-Stowell Hospital District (WSHD) is a political subdivision of the State of Texas. The district was established in 2005 after being voted on by the Citizens of the District.

The boundaries for the District are the same as the Chambers County Emergency Service District No. 1 and the East Chambers Independent School District. Eligibility for healthcare services provided by the District is dependent upon residence within the District and other qualifications.

The District’s Board of Directors is made up of five elected officials who serve four year staggered terms. The Board works together to increase the quality and scope of healthcare available to the Citizens of the District and its needy inhabitants by: 1) promoting cost effective health care services; 2) ensuring regulatory compliance; 3) marketing its services; and 4) providing leadership and management. Since being elected in November 2012, the current Board of the Winnie Stowell Hospital District has worked tirelessly to accomplish many goals in an effort to ultimately increase healthcare services available to the District’s residents and needy inhabitants by:

• Kept Hospital Open: Throughout 2013 and most of 2014, the District’s Board took the lead in ensuring that the Winnie Community Hospital remained open and was able to keep its designation as a “Critical Access” facility, which would enable a future owner of the hospital to receive more favorable reimbursement rates from Medicare;
• Increased Revenue: The District raised its annual revenues eighteen times by participating in the Nursing Home Upper Payment Limit “UPL” Program;
• Improve Healthcare: The District has invested in the Winnie Community Hospital’s, now known as Riceland Hospital, services and infrastructure so that the District’s residents and needy will have access to a better healthcare facility;
• Increased Indigent Care: As a result of the improvements to the Hospital, the District is able to provide better healthcare to the District’s Indigent. In addition, the District has established a position for an Indigent Health Care Director whose job it is to increase Indigent participation and access to assistance.
• Increase Transparency: Established a substantive website in order to assist in transparency;

As part of its statutory duty and mission of attending to and balancing the healthcare needs of the community and its needy inhabitants, the main purpose of this District, as well as any hospital district in the State of Texas, is to assume full responsibility for providing medical and hospital care for its Indigent inhabitants without charge. In order to provide healthcare services to the District’s Indigent residents, the District has established guidelines for its Indigent Care Assistance Program (ICAP) that set forth the criteria to qualify as “indigent” and to participate in the ICAP.   In general, medically indigent adults in the health care system that do not have health insurance and are not eligible for other forms of governmental assistance coverage qualify for ICAP. Those seeking assistance are encouraged to review eligibility requirements and contact WSHD office if they feel they may qualify.

Since the District does not own a healthcare facility to serve the Indigent, Chapter 61 of the Texas Health and Safety Code (the “Indigent Health Care and Treatment Act”) allows the District to enter into contract(s) relating to or arranging for the provision of such healthcare services.  Therefore, after the Winnie Community Hospital was purchased in a bankruptcy auction by a private organization in 2014, the Hospital and the District entered into an agreement for the Hospital to provide healthcare to the District’s Indigent population. In exchange, the District agreed to provide financial assistance to make improvements to the Hospital’s infrastructure and services provided by the Hospital.

Because of District’s positive relationship with the Winnie Community Hospital, now known as Riceland Hospital, the Hospital has been able to:

• Re-establish participation in Medicare program to obtain reimbursement for uncompensated care;
• Upgrade software for to run the Hospital in a more efficient manner;
  

  New CT Machine at Riceland Hospital

• Upgrade equipment (e.g. New CT Machine);
• Upgrade all twenty-five (25) hospital rooms;
• Re-establish two state of the art operating rooms;
• Establish a mental health group therapy program;
• Brought in additional hospital leadership team members, including consultants that specialize in operating rural hospitals; and
• Extend the rural health clinic hours to make it more accessible for citizens of the District;

Realizing the need to increase revenue in order to provide a higher level of healthcare in the District and to be able to provide more services to the underprivileged community, the District, like many other qualified public entities in the State of Texas, took the opportunity in the summer of 2014 to acquire thirty nine (39) nursing homes in the State of Texas. These nursing homes were previously owned by two nursing home operators, Caring Healthcare and Genesis Healthcare. The acquisition of these facilities was at no cost to the taxpayers, except for the transaction costs, and the prior owners are now serving as the managers of each respective facility.

As the owners of these facilities, the District was able to enroll these facilities into the Nursing Home Upper Payment Limit Program (“UPL”) administered by the Texas Health and Human Services. This program, like the similar programs adopted by many other states, enables entities such as the District to put up local funds in order to draw down federal funds to recoup the difference between Medicare payment rat
es and the Medicaid payment by the State of Texas to nursing facilities.

These facilities owned by the District and that are participating in the Quality Incentive Payment Program (QIPP) are: Garrison Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, LLC (Garrison, Texas); Golden Villa Healthcare, LLC (Atlanta, Texas); Highland Park Health Center (Houston, Texas); Marshall Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center (Marshall, Texas), Marshall Manor West (Marshall, Texas), Rose Haven Retreat (Atlanta, Texas); Spring Branch Transitional Care Center, LLC (Houston, Texas); Spindletop (Beaumont, Texas); Hallettsville Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Hallettsville, Texas); Monument Hill Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (La Grange, Texas); Oak Manor Nursing Center (Flatonia, Texas); Oakland Manor Nursing Center (Giddings, Texas); and the Woodlands Healthcare Center (Spring, Texas); Accel (College Station, Texas); Park Manor of Conroe (Conroe, Texas); Crowley Nursing and Rehabilitation (Crowley, Texas); Park Manor of Cyfair (Houston, Texas); Cimarron Place (Corpus Christi, Texas); Park Manor of Cypress Station (Houston, Texas); Deerbrook Skilled Nursing (Humble, Texas); Friendship Haven Healthcare and Rehab (Friendswood, Texas); Green Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation (Arlington, Texas); Park Manor of Humble (Humble, Texas); Holland Lake Rehabilitation and Wellness Center (Weatherford, Texas); Harbor Lakes Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (Granbury, Texas); Hewitt Nursing and Rehabilitation (Hewitt, Texas); Mission Nursing and Rehabilitation (Mission, Texas); Pecan Bayou Nursing and Rehabilitation (Kennedale, Texas); Park Manor of Quail Valley (Missouri City, Texas); Red Oak Health and Rehabilitation Center (Red Oak, Texas); Park Manor of South Belt (Houston, Texas); Stallings Court Nursing and Rehabilitation (Nacogdoches, Texas); Stonegate Nursing and Rehabilitation (Fort Worth, Texas); Silver Spring (Cascade Abilene) Health and Rehab (Abilene, Texas); Stephenville Rehabilitation and Wellness Center (Stephenville, Texas); Park Manor of The Woodlands (The Woodlands, Texas); Park Manor of Tomball (Tomball, Texas); Park Manor of Westchase (Houston, Texas); Willowbrook Nursing Center (Nacogdoches, Texas).

Thanks to the revenue received by the Hospital District participation in the Upper Payment Limit Program, the District has been able to provide additional capital to the nursing homes while making significant improvements to the infrastructure and healthcare services at Riceland Hospital.