Jesup, GA – Through the Georgia Rural Health Tax Program, Georgia HEART, Wayne Memorial recently received $43,750 from The First Bank. Pictured are Hospital Chief Executive Officer Joe Ierardi (center), flanked by The First’s Commercial Loan Officer and Vice President Ginger Proudfoot (left) and The First’s Division Manager and Senior Vice President Stephen Parker (right) at the check presentation.
Georgia HEART (Helping Enhance Access to Rural Treatment) is a tax program that enables tax dollars to be redirected locally and in state to rural hospitals of the taxpayers’ choice. For many years, due to demographic, economic, and health care industry challenges, Georgia’s rural hospitals have been facing a financial crisis. This crisis jeopardizes the access of rural Georgians to adequate health care. In response, in 2016, the Georgia General Assembly passed, and Governor Nathan Deal signed into law, Senate Bill 258. This legislation awards Georgia income tax credits to individual and corporate taxpayers who contribute to qualified rural hospital organizations located in Georgia.
“Part of our mission at The First is to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve to ensure a brighter future for everyone,” Parker said. “The partnership with Georgia HEART and Wayne Memorial Hospital is just one example of how we demonstrate this commitment. Our customers and the public at large utilize our local rural hospital and we are glad to support the hospital in carrying out its mission of caring for the community,” he continued. “We are certainly proud of Wayne Memorial’s service to our community,” Proudfoot added. “This donation dovetails well with the history of the founding of the bank when a group of friends got together to talk about creating a bank that would take care of financial needs of the customer and also the individual as a whole. Together, The First and Wayne Memorial are natural partners,” she said.
Participation in the Georgia HEART program is limited to Georgia rural hospitals that meet certain qualification criteria established in the law. These include population size (50,000 or less, excluding military personnel), tax-exempt status or public hospital authority management, acceptance of Medicare and Medicaid, and a minimum annual provision of indigent or uncompensated care. In order to qualify, rural hospitals must also file a five-year plan with the Georgia Department of Community Health.
“We are humbled and grateful for this gift from The First,” Ierardi said. “We appreciate them thinking of us and, as always, will exercise fiscal responsibility in how these funds are used. Donations help our hospital buy necessary but unbudgeted equipment that benefits the health of the community we serve. Organizations like The First and programs like Georgia HEART have been a blessing to us and many other rural hospitals,” he shared.
Wayne Memorial Hospital, whose mission is to provide high quality health care services to all patients, built a state-of-the-art facility in 2007. It is the third largest employer in Wayne County with 500 employees, 84 beds and is a three-time winner of the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals Small Hospital of the Year Award.
