A group of concerned citizens has formed a new committee \u2013 Friends of Our Hospital \u2013 to promote a referendum on the November ballot.<\/p>\n
The referendum, 5D MCHD, calls for lifting restrictions currently imposed by state law so that the Montezuma County Hospital District (MCHD) will have access to additional grant funding that is available to rural hospitals. The referendum does not call for any additional taxes to be paid by property owners or other residents in Montezuma County.<\/p>\n
The restrictions currently in place limit the amount of grant funding that can be accepted to $27,000 per year. If these restrictions are lifted, that figure will increase to $1 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are to continue supporting our local hospital so that they can continue providing high-quality care to the residents of our community, this additional grant funding is very much needed,\u201d said MCHD board chairman Bill Thompson.<\/p>\n
The Montezuma County Hospital District is the landlord for Southwest Memorial Hospital. The district owns the hospital building on Mildred Road in Cortez, the land surrounding the facility, as well as the Mancos Valley Health Center building in Mancos. Southwest Health System, in turn, leases the facilities from the district to provide health care in the community. The district supports the hospital by maintaining the buildings and making capital purchases such as facility upgrades and state-of-the-art medical equipment.<\/p>\n
The committee emphasizes that the referendum on the November ballot does not ask for a tax increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty of 5D is that it will cost taxpayers absolutely nothing \u2014 not one dime \u2014 but it will help our local hospital access funding that is currently unavailable,\u201d said Karen Sheek, committee spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 5D passes, everyone benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only will the hospital be able to keep up with the latest technology and continue providing great care and services to all of us, but this additional money coming into the community will also be an economic boon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friends of Our Hospital welcomes new members to the committee. Anyone interested in helping support the group\u2019s efforts should contact Sheek at 759-4533.<\/p>\n
jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n Learn about how the Affordable Care Act and the upcoming changes to health insurance may benefit you and your family. would lift limits on grant funding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,538],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-57517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-southwest-memorial-hospital"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60846,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57517\/revisions\/60846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57517"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=57517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Affordable Care Act meetings set<\/h4>\n
\n A free seminar at the
\n Dolores Public Library on Thursday, Sept. 19th, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
\n Connect for Health Colorado and the Pi\u00f1on Project will give an overview and answer your questions. For more information visit doloreslibrary.org or call the library at 970-882-4127.
\n In Cortez a similar informational meeting sponsored by Southwest Memorial Hospital is scheduled for
\n Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 6 p.m.
\n The location has not been finalized. Questions can be submitted to insurancequestions@swhealth.org<\/a>
\n Go to www.connectforhealth.com for more information on the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"