NATCHEZ — Adams County supervisors expect to receive funds next week to pay former Natchez Regional Medical Center employees’ retirement benefits.

County Attorney Scott Slover said the escrow account created during the hospital bankruptcy settlements is no longer required to be open as of the end of September.

Slover said the county is expected to receive the remainder of its $1 million balance in the $4 million escrow account during the middle of next week.

The approximately $310,000 from the escrow account will be paired with $200,000 the county is saving in refinancing the $3 million loan taken out to keep the hospital operational two years ago. The funds will be used to pay off the Mississippi Public Employee Retirement System (PERS).

The approximately $500,000 is expected to cover the gap in payments hospital officials missed in its copay to PERS during the bankruptcy. Board

President Mike Lazarus said if a difference does exist, the county would meet it out of its budget.

Lazarus said Monday he put his neck on the line and told hospital employees the PERS deal would be taken care of in October.

“I don’t want to lie to people,” Lazarus said. “I need to know. We owe these people an answer.”

Lazarus said Wednesday as soon as he gets the check in hand he’ll set up a meeting with PERS officials and get the payment squared away so former employees can access full retirement benefits.

“This will make everyone whole again, which is really good,” Lazarus said. “I know we were not obligated to pay PERS, but we felt like it was the right thing to do.”

While employees continued to make contributions toward PERS, from November 2013 until the bankruptcy filing the hospital did not pay the employer portion of the payments. Under PERS, employers make a 15.75-percent match to employee contributions.

In May, Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill into law to allow Adams County to buy out the PERS claim from the bankruptcy.

The bill will allow the county to pay up to the $418,160.48 owed.

PERS has not allowed people to accept a partial payment on outstanding funds during this time period even though employees paid their portion of the benefits.

The former county-owned hospital filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2014, after losing millions of dollars. The bankruptcy ended in October 2014 when the hospital was sold to Community Health Systems for $10 million.

During the sales process, an escrow account of $4 million was created to cover any remaining clawbacks from Medicaid and Medicare. Administrative claims, secured creditors and unsecured creditors will also have access to the account.