Officials for Coeur d'Alene, Idaho-based Kootenai Health said the health system is on track to complete its conversion from a public health system to a private nonprofit entity by the end of the year, the Coeur d'Alene Press reported July 6.
Health system trustees voted in May to assume operations of Kootenai Health, Inc., a nonprofit organization, according to the report. The deadline for the conversion is Dec. 31. Once completed, the board of trustees that was in place in May will remain intact, but future board members will be appointed rather than elected.
In a February filing, the health system said advantages of a conversion included greater flexibility in raising investment and fewer obligations in an increasingly competitive market.
Kootenai Health CFO Michele Bouit said conversion costs have totaled $1.3 million between 2022 and July 2023, according to the report. Those costs are associated with attorneys acting as advisers during the transition process.
"We have intentionally chosen to get very good consultants and the costs are within what we would expect," Joel Hazel, the system's chief legal officer, told the Coeur d'Alene Press. "The payments to outside law firms will go down from here because the plan is in place, and it's up to us to implement it."