Newly elected Mark Twain Health Care District board member Randy Smart said the district is moving forward in a positive direction and hopes to tackle a number of important issues over the coming months.

The Mark Twain Health Care District, a public agency, was formed by a vote of the people of Calaveras County in a special election held Aug. 27, 1946. The political boundaries of the Mark Twain Health Care District comprised all of Calaveras County.

In 1989, the district partnered with St. Josephs Hospital in Stockton and that partnership affiliated with Catholic Healthcare West.

Mark Twain Health District retains 50 percent ownership in all of the facility assets while the day-to-day operations of the hospital are the responsibility of the Mark Twain Medical Centers Dignity Health Corporation. The operational lease agreement with the corporation expires Dec. 31, 2019. The board appointed an ad hoc Lease Review Committee to determine the best process to use as it moves forward in evaluating an extension or renewal of the current agreement.

The district receives a property tax allocation each year from Calaveras County, which has been more than $1 million at times, and provides funding to provide direct support and education for the health care needs of the communities served by the district.

The agreement between the district and Dignity Health is perhaps the only one like it in the state, according to district CEO Daymon Doss. Robert Campana was largely responsible for negotiating the agreement, and one of the most interesting clauses written into the contract was the district would receive a portion of whatever profits the corporation earned during the lease.

Whatever the profits over the history of the lease, the district is entitled to 50 percent of those profits, Doss said. To date, our share is $17 million.

Smart said such an arrangement is extremely unusual.

I dont know exactly where the money is, or how accessible it is. My understanding is its being kept in the coffers of Dignity Health, he said.

Smart said the energy level and dynamic is completely different this year.

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Health care board sets its course for future