The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid granted an extension Tuesday to the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital, giving the St. Croix health center more time to avoid decertification.
Delegate Donna M. Christensen announced the decision Tuesday morning, say she was gratified by the decision.
Christensen set up the meeting Friday between JFL officials and CMS in order to avert the planned Oct. 9 loss of Medicare funding. She said it is now up to local officials to put an agreement in place in six weeks that satisfies CMS’s conditions.
“The Luis Hospital needs the full attention of the board, the governor, and Legislature and its staff to come up with a new Systems Improvement Agreement in six weeks and the implementation of that agreement in nine months,” she said. “There will be no wriggle room next time. We must all demonstrate that our hospitals are important to all of us and that quality care is a right.”
The hospital called a noon press conference Tuesday to announce the news.
