The joint statement (carrying the upbeat title "City of Long Beach and MemorialCare Meet to Discuss Transition Plan for Community Medical Center Long Beach") also indicates that, for now, there's no agreement currently in place to prevent a potentially costly lapse in the hospital's license before transfer of the hospital's operations to Molina-Wu-Network, LLC . That means last ditch efforts -- including a $1 million offer by the Community Hospital Fondation to indemnify MemorialCare during the transition -- also failed to sway MemorialCare to enable an immediate, smooth transition.

However, the joint statement says: "MemorialCare is working with the City to identify a process by which the existing hospital license may be placed in 'suspense' to allow the potential transition of Community Medical Center to a new operator, if the requisite State regulatory approvals are met."

It's not immediately clear why the option of putting the license in "suspense" wasn't publicly discussed previously, or whether such a procedure will be acceptable to state hospital regulators...but it leaves open the possibility that the smaller version of Community Hospital (roughly 30-40 acute care beds plus an ER proposed by the Molina-Wu-Network, LLC group) could ultimately re-open without millions of dollars in costs required if the hospital's license were to lapse with closure of the facility by its exiting operator, MemorialCare.

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The Joint Statement statement adds that the City "will continue to work with its chosen operator [Molina-Wu-Network, LLC] to address the seismic issues, obtain financing and secure require regulatory approva;s fpr the transition of Community Medical Center." That verbiage is consistent with a statement by Economic Development Director John Keisler during city staff's June 19 City Council presentation, which indicated that negotiations with the Molina-Wu-Network, LLC would explore "city participation" regarding seismic improvements.

City or public "participation" is a common euphemism for using taxpayer funds or resources to facilitate a business transaction. Neither Mayor Garcia nor any Councilmember(s) publicly sought details on the amount or type of "city participation" that the Council vote authorized city staff to negotiate.

Below is the June 22 Joint Statement in full:

Representatives from the City of Long Beach and MemorialCare jointly engaged in a constructive meeting this afternoon to discuss plans to facilitate a transition of Community Medical Center after its closure on July 3. MemorialCare is working with the City to identify a process by which the existing hospital license may be placed in "suspense" to allow the potential transition of Community Medical Center to a new operator, if the requisite State regulatory approvals are met.

The City and MemorialCare are committed to working together to meet with applicable regulatory agencies and other stakeholder groups to work towards the transition to the new operator. The City will continue to work with its chosen operator to address the seismic issues, obtain financing and secure required regulatory approvals for the transition of Community Medical Center.

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