The Arizona Capitol Times is reporting that the Maricopa County’s “hospital system for indigent patients has defaulted on a 10-year-old, $15.4 million loan from Maricopa County.”
In 2005, according to the Capitol Times, Maricopa County gave Maricopa Integrated Health System the loan “as seed money for the voter-approved health system, which was established as a separate government body to relieve the county of the financial burden of running Maricopa Medical Center at 26th and Roosevelt streets.”
The Capitol Times reports that Michael Murphy, an MIHS spokesman, said the loan was to be paid in full on Aug. 1 but no payments have been made over the 10-year period.
According to the Arizona Tax Research Association, during the 2014 Prop 480 bond election, ATRA called the Maricopa County hospital system (MIHS) “an outdated health care delivery model.”
In April, the Arizona Republic reported that MIHS’s cash reserves have fallen more than $40 million in the last two years.