St. Rose Hospital is slowly getting a more stable form of funding through a federal government transfer. On March 17, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved $1 million from the Office of Supervisor Elisa Márquez to start an Intergovernmental Transfer (IGT), which would help fund St. Rose. Eden Health District, Alameda Health System (AHS) and the county’s Measure A funds all together make an over $18 million IGT transaction.
The transaction would then match local money with federal dollars, doubling the funding to over $36 million for St. Rose Hospital. This is the second time Márquez has been able to allocate $1 million towards the financial transaction.
Márquez said the effort to save St. Rose Hospital lasted about 15 to 20 years. Financial support from the county was needed to keep the hospital running. According to an Alameda County Health staff report in February, St. Rose Hospital has a history of financial difficulty because they have a large proportion of Medi-Cal and uninsured patients.
The funding transaction is all thanks to Senate Bill 1100, which allows private hospitals to receive federal IGT transfers. This financial support for St. Rose Hospital had a lot of moving parts that involved affiliation, maintaining nonprofit hospital status, and funding the hospital. Márquez said the county hired a consultant in 2023 to try to find solutions to fund the hospital. One of the solutions was to become affiliated with a larger health system, which led to the effort to become affiliated with AHS.
During that effort, Assemblymember Liz Ortega also authored a bill that would forgive St.Rose hospital loans. However, that bill did not pass.
Attorney General Rob Bonta had to hold a public hearing proving that the AHS affiliation would be in the public’s best interest while maintaining St. Rose’s status as a private nonprofit hospital. “That was instrumental, because without maintaining that, Alameda Health System would not be able to absorb St. Rose without that IGT funding,” said Márquez. St. Rose became an affiliate in November 2024.
St. Rose Hospital is the only emergency room in Hayward, serving over 400,000 people that reside within 30 minutes of the hospital. It serves Hayward, Union City, Newark, Fremont and unincorporated Alameda County residents. The hospital is a STEMI receiving center, meaning patients can go to the hospital for immediate heart attack care.
Márquez said she advocated for the first IGT transaction and AHS affiliation for over a year. She said it was important to continue the work in keeping the hospital open to maintain the entire healthcare ecosystem. She said if St. Rose Hospital was to close, it would impact service in other nearby hospitals that are already at capacity.
“This matters to everyone,” said Márquez. “They may not think it does, but when you explain it to them, they’re able to see that perspective as well.”
