Monterey County Board of Supervisors To Consider Options for Natividad Medical Center
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors for two months will consider several options presented during a meeting Tuesday for the "financially troubled" county-owned Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, the Los Angeles Times reports. Financial analysts expect the hospital to report a profit this fiscal year after a series of cost-cutting measures, but they say that increasing operating costs could result in an $8.8 million budget deficit in the next fiscal year. Options under consideration range from closing the facility to selling it to another provider (Los Angeles Times, 1/8). Monterey County voters in December rejected Measure Q, which would have increased the county sales tax by a half-cent to fund Natividad. The measure would have raised as much as $25 million per year for the hospital (California Healthline, 11/13).
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