Boone County Commission asked to approve Boone Health asset sale to unnamed partner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Boone County commissioners met with two Boone Health representatives Tuesday to discuss a $36 million sale of the hospital's assets to an unnamed health care partner.

Boone Health can't move forward legally with the new partner until commissioners approve the sale, Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick said. The partnership is up for a second read at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, and the new proposed partner will have representatives at the meeting to answer commissioners' questions.

"The whole part of this — and this is just the next step in the whole process — is to make sure we have excellent patient care long into the future," Boone Health CEO Brady Dubois said. "We're excited about the care that's being delivered every day at Boone and that that same care will be available five, 10 years down the road."

Dubois said 17 organizations showed interest in partnering with Boone Health, and that number was reduced to 11. After a unanimous vote by the hospital's board of trustees, it is now down to one potential partner.

The proposed partnership could also bring upgrades to hospital equipment and expansion, and a renewed focus on rural healthcare.

Dubois said the hospital's emergency room has only 16 beds, but there's been a 30% rise in healthcare needs. However, healthcare upgrades are expensive, which is where the partner could step in.

Boone Health employs 2,300 people throughout the hospital, and those in good standing will have the option to stay and keep the same pay rate if the partnership is approved, Dubois said.

"As I mentioned before, making sure that the jobs of the employees within Boone Health are secure is important to us," Kendrick said.

If approved, the unnamed partner would pay $36 million, which would be used to pay off bonds that the Boone Health Board of Trustees took out. Kendrick said the county won't see any of that money.

It's not clear what would happen to the board of trustees if the sale goes through.