Feds scramble to approve Catholic hospital’s chapel candle after funding cutoff menace

Federal officers late Wednesday scrambled to bless an Oklahoma hospital chapel’s candle after issuing a warning letter cursing its mild and threatening a cutoff of Medicare and Medicaid funding.

In an announcement to The Washington Times, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services mentioned the company “is working with the hospital’s accrediting organization to develop options to mitigate the potential fire risk and remove the safety finding.”

On April 20, a CMS official ordered the St. Francis Health System to extinguish a glass-encased candle at its 96-bed hospital in south Tulsa or lose its accreditation from the Joint Commission, an impartial company.

Public Health Service Capt. Scott J. Cooper mentioned the flame is a hazard, citing an inspection report in regards to the “open, unsupervised flame” from the Joint Commission, a hospital accrediting physique.

He denied a waiver request from St. Francis Health System to allow the chapel candle.

Without the fee’s endorsement, all the Health System risked shedding eligibility for federal funds, advocates mentioned.

The earlier CMS letter was adamant about imposing a requirement that open flames in hospitals be “supervised at all times.”

The candle, which represents the presence of Christ, has burned repeatedly within the chapel for 63 years with the approval of native fireplace officers.

“In requiring Saint Francis to extinguish its flame, you are trying to extinguish not just a candle, but the First Amendment rights of Saint Francis Health System, as well as vital healthcare for the elderly, poor, and disabled in Oklahoma,” legal professional Lori Widham of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty mentioned May 2 in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and different officers.

A lack of accreditation and funding “would abruptly and immediately jeopardize its services to the elderly, disabled, and low-income patients” who depend on the federal funds, mentioned Ms. Widham, whose nonprofit authorized group is representing the hospital.

The legal professional mentioned the St. Francis Health System gives about 11,000 jobs and cares for greater than 400,000 sufferers in its 5 jap Oklahoma hospitals.

The church’s guidelines require “a special lamp, fueled by oil or wax, should shine prominently to indicate the presence of Christ and honor it,” and that the usage of “so-called electric vigil lights” is prohibited beneath pointers issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Advocates say the chapel candle is way from medical tools and sufferers and shielded by two glass holders. It stands in a brass basin connected to a wall.

A Joint Commission surveyor visited the hospital Feb. 21, expressly requested to see the chapel candle and cited it as a “moderate” security danger, hospital attorneys mentioned.

A spokesperson for the Joint Commission didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Barry Steichen, government vice chairman and chief working officer of St. Francis, mentioned the hospital is “being asked to choose between serving those in need and worshipping God in the chapel, but they go hand in hand.”

Ms. Widham mentioned the candle-dousing order “is a blatant violation” of the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment.

Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, denounced the April 20 CMS willpower.

In an electronic mail to The Washington Times, he mentioned threatening the hospital’s accreditation for having the chapel candle “violates Oklahomans’ proper to non secular freedom.