Dan Kolber worked a deal that bridged the end of the old Grady Health System and the beginning of the new Grady Health System.
The Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz corporate partner was adviser to Goldman Sachs Bank USA on an
extremely short-term $23 million loan it floated last month to Grady Health System, parent of Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital. The loan was intended to let Grady make its required contribution to the Georgia Department of Community Health Indigent Care Trust Fund, which in turn triggered a return of the loan to Grady as well as additional federal matching dollars.
It was the first time that Goldman had provided financing to Grady, Kolber said.
“Goldman is interested in this market and in providing services to Grady,” he said. “They thought [this short-term loan] was a good chance for them to step up to the plate.”
The loan – which was repaid in full by Grady after only two weeks – also represented the final transaction of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority’s oversight of Grady, as well as the first transaction overseen by the new Grady Memorial Hospital Corp., Kolber said.
“Since it was the absolute last transaction of the old Grady board, that was one of the legal issues,” Kolber said. “Goldman could have insisted that there not be a change in the structure of the Grady board until the payment was completed. Some lawyers might have advised them not to do the deal, but we think Goldman was adequately protected. Nobody wanted to hold up the trigger.”
Last month, the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority transferred responsibility for the operations of Grady Health System to a new non-profit corporation, Grady Memorial Hospital Corp.
After Grady re-paid the loan to Goldman, the hospital received the same amount from the state Department of Community Health, plus addition federal matching dollars, to fund the healthcare Grady provides to poor people, Kolber said. Grady needed the loan from Goldman so it would not have to dip into its cash reserves to make the payment, he said.
Baker Donelson partner Nedom A. Haley worked with Kolber on the loan. Goldman didn’t provide in-house counsel to supervise the loan, Kolber said. Alston & Bird partner Karol V. Mason advised Grady, working with the hospital’s general counsel, Timothy Jefferson.