
While watching a meeting of the Somervell County Hospital District of the August 29, 2023 meeting, there was a section called CEO Report, done by Michael Honea. On the agenda there was nothing to indicate the section that Michael Honea talked about and he didn’t really explain what the heck this was. Essentially, he sent letters to a number of politicians, including Danny Chambers, Brian Birdwell, DeWayne Burns,. John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Roger Miller (even, hah, Sid Miller) among others. Of course couldn’t figure out what this was since it 1. wasn’t spelled out on the agenda and 2. wasn’t described by Honea about what it was when he was talking.
Here’s what was sent and what it is about. GRMC wants to be a critical access hospital so they can get Medicare money. But they do not qualify because, for one, Lake Granbury Medical Center is too close and the idea is that a rural hospital too far away from other hospitals may need help. Instead of trying to live within the law, they are trying to game the system with some baloney argument about why GRMC should flout the rules and get that designation. Michael Honea asked a raft of people if they would write letters, based on a template that may have been prepared by a Honea Consulting LLC and then sent back to him. The attorney, apparently for the hospital? said the best course of action to try to change the status and get some of that good old federal money would be to attack the issue through local and state people, get letters of support, and then to the federal level. It’s interesting to note that ONLY John Cornyn’s office actually asked the Center for Medication and Medicaid if they can even make a change. Also makes me wonder, did the other commissioners know of this beg request or was it brought up in commissioners court on the agenda or Chambers just up and decided to write a letter for Michael?
Here’s why: From CMS.gov
A Medicare-participating hospital must meet the following criteria to be designated by CMS as a CAH:
- Be located in a State that has established a State Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program;
- Be designated by the State as a CAH;
- Be located in a rural area or an area that is treated as rural;
- Be located either more than 35-miles from the nearest hospital or CAH or more than 15 miles in areas with mountainous terrain or only secondary roads; OR prior to January 1, 2006, were certified as a CAH based on State designation as a “necessary provider” of health care services to residents in the area.
- Maintain no more than 25 inpatient beds that can be used for either inpatient or swing-bed services;
- Maintain an annual average length of stay of 96 hours or less per patient for acute inpatient care (excluding swing-bed services and beds that are within distinct part units);
- Demonstrate compliance with the CAH CoPs found at 42 CFR Part 485 subpart F; and
- Furnish 24-hour emergency care services 7 days a week;
Do you think they even ran this past Lake Granbury Medical Center in Granbury, since that hospital is certainly less than 35 miles away? And, there are multiple routes, including the road that goes by Comanche Peak, that are state highways. The idea that Comanche Peak would not be on a good road is laughable. It’s 15.9 miles between GRMC and LGMC if one takes State Hwy 144, or 19.3 miles if one goes up SH 56, and that’s not even looking at the county borders.
You would also think nuclear evacuation drills were happening all the time in this county. I don’t honestly know how any person finds out when there is to be a drill, maybe it’s in the paper, but if you knew that the road was going to be closed (doubt it would be closed anyway), you’d just go on a different route to Granbury. The whole “These evacuation drills make it almost impossible for residents to travel to Lake Granbury Medical Center for ER visits,….. “That sounds very anecdotal without any source proofs, doesn’t it? In fact, here is a FEMA report from 2021 of a Radiological Emergency Prepared Program that involved a drill,
Enclosed is a copy of the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program (REPP) final report for the
Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, Virtual Medical Services Drill that was evaluated on March 29,
- FEMA Region 6 staff evaluated the Lake Granbury Medical Center and Texas Emergency Medical
Services located outside the plume exposure pathway emergency planning zone (EPZ), around the
Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant (CPNPP) located near Granbury, Texas. There were no Level 1 or
Level 2 findings and no Plan Issues identified during the Medical Services Drill.
Based on the results of the drill, the off-site radiological emergency response plans and preparedness for the State of Texas and the affected local jurisdictions are deemed adequate to provide reasonable assurance that appropriate measures can be taken to protect the health and safety of the public in the event of a radiological release. Therefore, 44 CFR Part 350 approval of the off-site radiological emergency response plans and preparedness for the State of Texas, site-specific to Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, will remain in effect.
Saying again, you don’t think Comanche Peak would raise a huge stink if people could not get to Lake Granbury Medical Center?




Honea wrote to John Cornyn who asked the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)





The question next is why Somervell County Hospital District is so eager to get taxpayer money at the Federal level, even though they know they do not qualify because of the 35 mile rule. I believe because, even though Glen Rose Medical Center does not qualify, they see another potential source of money from taxpayers. Problem is that you would think rural hospitals who actually fit into the category as described in the regulations and applications should be the ones to get federal income tax money, not hospitals that just wish they could. To me, assuming these funds are limited to some degree, it could take away funding from a rural hospital that actually needed it.
Part of this same discussion is Michael Honea talking about some software and going on a visit to another hospital in Hallettsville that is running some software that maybe they’re fixing to purchase. Interestingly, the vendor of the software gave free tickets for visits to Las Vegas. I have no idea if that is legal, after all that’s what Supreme Court justices Alito and Thomas did, accepting bribes to fancy ranches taken on private airplanes but at the very least it’s a bad look, and seems unethical to be accepting free trips to another location for the purpose of assessing software. (Ignore Doctor Vacek a comment that he volunteers to be a chaperone). These board members could have put money aside to fly people out to Vegas and put them up in hotels, but so much easier not to have to spend tax money collected from residents.
Medicare funding for rural communities. Has anything changed from Feb 2009 when then-CEO of Glen Rose Medical Center talked about something similar? He said that due to the nearest hospital to Glen Rose Medical Center being less then 25 miles away, GRMC does not qualify for sole community hospital. The same principle applies here and it’s a little creepy that GRMC is not only trying to game the system but rope in other elected officials to help them do it.
At the
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