Millage Rate Reduced

The Board of Commissioners of the South Broward Hospital District, which oversees the operations for Memorial Healthcare System, voted on Wednesday to adopt a millage rate of 0.1615 – making this the sixth year in a row that the Board has elected to lower the overall millage rate for the District, resulting in the lowest rate in the history of the South Broward Hospital District.

With no net tax revenue remaining from the newly adopted millage rate, the District will use operating income to cover all uncompensated care costs for the entire Memorial Healthcare System, including its six hospitals and its South Broward Community Health Services. In fiscal year 2017, uncompensated care is projected to exceed $840.2 million. 

This historic reduction comes at a time when Memorial Healthcare System has experienced unprecedented financial performance and growth. Recently, Memorial launched its first direct-to-consumer “MemorialDocNow” telehealth application while continuing other technological endeavors that help connect physicians to patients online. Other strategic areas of growth include programs such as graduate medical education with accredited residencies in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pediatrics and most recently Internal Medicine. Memorial also remains one of only a handful of public hospitals in the nation to achieve AA, Aa3 financial ratings by Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s, respectively.

The 0.1615 millage rate represents a 7 percent decrease from last year’s rate of 0.1737. The resulting gross tax revenues are estimated to reach $8.2 million. After accounting for early payment discounts and a certain percentage of uncollectible taxes, the anticipated tax payments this year of $8 million will provide the District enough revenue to cover only its governmental obligations, which include paying Broward County’s Medicaid Match program and community redevelopment agencies in several municipalities in south Broward County, as well as tax collector commissions and property appraiser fees. 

MEDIA CONTACT: 
Kerting Baldwin, 954-265-3455
kbaldwin@mhs.net