AL hospital's unpaid bills threaten other county departments

Cooper Green Mercy Hospital's financial problems are beginning to threaten other departments in cash-strapped Jefferson County, commissioners were told Tuesday. The county-owned hospital for the poor needs a total of about $14.4 million to clear up past due invoices and erase a shortfall left over from fiscal 2011. That figure includes $3.5 million for past-due invoices and another $10.9 million negative cash balance carried into the current fiscal year. "Its failure to pay its accounts payable is having some spillover effect on other departments in the county," Deputy County Manager Walter Jackson told commissioners. "Some of the same vendors that serve Cooper Green serve other departments."