The following piece is a response to John Quinlivan’s op-ed published June 4, 2026.
“The recovery plan we built is comprehensive – new leadership, disciplined cost reductions, physician recruitment, service-line growth, public support, and private financing. But it has one essential requirement: fair reimbursement from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama.”
Let’s start there: you did not build this plan – you inherited it from the interim leadership team. And as for the “private financing,” that’s you.
When you buy a hospital, you also buy its debts. Before Jackson Healthcare acquired Jackson Hospital, it provided $25 million in debtor-in-possession financing. That move placed the company in the strongest possible position to acquire the hospital because it demonstrated both willingness and financial capacity to step in. It also made Jackson Healthcare one of the hospital’s creditors.
Once Jackson Healthcare became the owner, it chose to prioritize repayment of its own debt over obligations owed to others. In effect, it refused to pay other creditors until it could pay itself back first.
That decision delayed the hospital’s exit from bankruptcy – an outcome that could have unlocked $40 million from the Governor’s office. Instead, the process dragged on, hospital resources were burned up, and employees and the community were subjected to another round of “death sentence” warnings that kept everyone in constant uncertainty.
“We contacted hundreds of potential hospital operators. We conducted thousands of hours of due diligence. By June, the conclusion was inescapable: no buyer was prepared to make the investment required to turn Jackson Hospital around.”
What exactly is this narrative supposed to accomplish?
Jackson Healthcare bought the hospital. It was chosen in part because it was presented as having the financial strength to turn the hospital around. So why is that money not being used now? Why is the burden suddenly being shifted to taxpayers – or to Blue Cross and Blue Shield customers, when BCBS patients reportedly make up only a tiny fraction of Jackson’s volume?
If Jackson Healthcare has the resources it claimed to have, why is Alabama being asked to foot the bill? And if it does not, then what was the real plan from the beginning?
“Then the Governor’s office asked a simple question: what would it take to save this hospital?”
That is not the full story.
Jackson Healthcare agreed to buy Jackson Hospital only after Governor Ivey had already made clear that state support would be on the table. Public statements at the time made it plain that Jackson Healthcare did not actually want to own the hospital absent that backing. That context matters, especially given the close relationship between Rick Jackson and the Governor.
And that leads to the larger point: John Quinlivan is not presenting a serious long-term plan to save Jackson Hospital. If anything, this looks like an effort to recover Rick Jackson’s investment while shifting the financial risk onto Alabama taxpayers and ratepayers.
I could say much more, but the issue is simple: If Jackson Hospital is going to be saved, it will not be because Rick Jackson and John Quinlivan suddenly discovered a mission of public service. It will be because Alabamians decide the hospital is worth saving and demand a solution that puts the public interest ahead of private repayment.
Jackson can still be saved, but saving it will require honesty about who benefits, who pays, and who has been calling the shots from the beginning.
This is not Auburn vs. Alabama.
This is Alabama vs. Georgia.
Who’s taking home the prize?
