A contestant in the Jefferson Parish hospital sweepstakes is walking back its proposal to include a purchase option in any lease for East Jefferson General Hospital and West Jefferson Medical Center. In dropping the purchase clause Friday, Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA appeared to remove an obstacle to winning the 30-year lease.
HCA's back-tracking came as behind-the-scenes lobbying intensified in advance of the Parish Council choosing, perhaps within weeks, one of three companies for the lease: HCA, a for-profit health-care conglomerate and the largest of the three competitors, or the non-profits Louisiana Children's Medical Center or Ochsner Health System.