The Medical University of South Carolina’s hospital system is asking legislators for $350 million for its planned new cancer hospital. (File photo by Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — The Medical University of South Carolina’s hospital system will need take on more debt and privately fundraise to achieve its ambitions of opening a top-tier cancer center in downtown Charleston.
MUSC Health plans to raise $200 million in charitable donations to help pay for the planned new cancer hospital, medical college president David Cole told a House budget panel. It also will need to finance another chunk of funding — how much is yet to be determined — adding to the state-owned hospital system’s growing mound of debt.
All of that is on top of the $350 million in taxpayer dollars the hospital system is asking legislators to provide in the state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. Gov. Henry McMaster, in his budget proposal, recommends the state chip in just $150 million.
The hospital’s governing board in April approved the plan to chase a Comprehensive Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute but did not say at the time how much the effort would cost. MUSC Health expects to finalize estimates for the project’s total price tag in the coming weeks, CEO Patrick Cawley told the SC Dailey Gazette.
The MUSC hospital system already had about $828 million in long-term debt on the books, according to the agency’s latest annual financial report.
In April, a state fiscal oversight board gave the system permission to borrow $860 million more: $400 million to build a hospital and cancer center in Summerville’s mega Nexton community, $330 million to build a hospital in Indian Land (the unincorporated panhandle of Lancaster County), and $130 million to finance the equipment for both.
So far, MUSC appears only to have cashed in on the Indian Land project, issuing that bond in December, according to a national database.
And in October, MUSC finalized a deal with Tidelands Health to take a controlling interest in the Grand Strand area hospitals. The deal involved no cash exchange, but MUSC takes on the financial risk at Tidelands, which has been operating at a $50 million deficit.
The cancer hospital, which Cole called MUSC’s “number one priority,” could further inflate those debt numbers.
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If approved, the center would be the first of its kind in South Carolina. Patients seeking this top level of care currently must travel out of state to centers in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
“There’s no reason in the future for a South Carolinian, if you have a cancer diagnosis, to leave the state for best-in-class care,” Cole said. “We should be able to build and deliver the best care possible for our citizens. And we’ve had a lot of partners that are lining up to help us make this a reality.”
MUSC’s current cancer hospital holds a tier-two designation as a Clinical Cancer Center. The bump in rankings could mean a bump in National Cancer Institute research grant support.
The existing center already boasts more than 230 researchers with a more than $50 million portfolio and more than 200 clinical trials, according to the hospital system’s budget request.
To reach the next level, the cancer center must increase the depth and breadth of its research and broaden its community reach.
MUSC would apply for its designation in 2028 and the center would open in 2030.
The hospital system has said it anticipates a “strong” return on the investment but has yet to provide further financial details.
South Carolina is below the national rate in terms of number of cancer cases, according to National Cancer Institute data, but the state has a higher mortality rate from the deadly disease.
Cole, citing U.S. Centers for Disease Control data, said MUSC expects the number of cancer cases to rise by 20% over the next five years.
