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Thursday, February 16, 2012

"PERPETUITY" MEANS NOTHING IN BAY COUNTY, FLORIDA

Last night I witnessed a mass brainwashing and a hostile takeover of Bay Medical Center by Sacred Heart Hospital.

The Bay County Commission gave public lip service by sitting, staring into space, while some of us (including Dr. Victor Ortega) tried to inform them with facts. The Commission, who gave us incinerator problems, band-aid fix cement pillows to cover up an under-the-Bay sewer line, the airport to nowhere at which three thousand plus jobs never materialized, no international flights as promised, rising flight prices, the loss of a carrier, continuing environmental problems, allied businesses that never came (and if you ask the pilots on the Atlanta-ECP flights, they are terrified of the mushy runway on hot summer days), are stealing a taxpayer-funded public, non-profit hospital, organized under the Hill-Burton Act which was absorbed by the Public Services Act, Title XVI, a federal act providing Hill-Burton services to the indigent and under-insured available “in perpetuity”; meaning, “forever”. There are remedies available for failing public, non-profit hospitals through this act, and whoever is in charge among the Bay County snake oil salesmen, someone dropped the ball, was unaware, or has kept this hidden. This is a serious problem, and because of this, a Grand Jury should be seated to explore why.

Earlier, I picked up a cursory (and in no way complete) printout of some of the capital items in the Radiology Department. Remember, it is “no way complete”; $10 million dollars worth. I stepped into the lobby of the new wing, the baby of the CEO, Steve Johnson (formerly of Sacred Heart), who admittedly spear-headed this disaster despite all economic indicators pointed to a failing economy under the premise like the airport – if you build it they will come. Without a Certificate of Need (CON) rooms were closed in the main hospital, and new, luxury private rooms were made, as well as a new restaurant with a brick pizza oven and a gourmet menu – in Panama City, Florida where any restaurant you choose can be found in within 20 minutes.

I was dyspeptic. The lobby and garden is huge, stunning and something you would see in a high end hotel. Why wasn’t this money put into patient care and more state-of-the-art diagnostic/treatment equipment and/or staff? The opulence is embarrassing and obscene for our depressed community, but not for Sacred Heart to come in and scoop up.

One of the speakers, our County attorney, Mr. Arline, I believe, mentioned questioning Mr. Johnson’s allegiance to Sacred Heart before hiring him. Now I know what my gut told me is true. For the ten years the hospital knew there was trouble looming, Johnson was planning the lease/sale all the time.

We have five Commissioners, all of them businessmen. I questioned why two audits weren’t done by “our” side (the County); a complete financial audit and a physical plant audit, right down to the last staple in the last staple gun and the last gauze pad. I asked the Chairman of the Commission why this wasn’t done and he doesn’t know! Supposedly they have taken the word of Sacred Heart who use a formula to guess at this number.

I wonder at the ex-Sheriff who won his seat on the Commission by 15 votes, to whom this transaction was handed. He has no experience in healthcare, whatsoever.

I wonder at the man sitting in front of me in the first row making notes on a yellow legal pad prior to the meeting. His first entry was “Golden Parachutes”. Golden Parachutes? Who’s getting them?

Most of the audience, I’m guessing by the big, blue buttons, was staff and management. Funny thing about the management at BMC – they have been known to intimidate the staff before when union attempts were made. The threat issued was the firing of any employee who dared try to organize or vote for the union. Manipulation works because the staff is ignorant of the facts.

No one is talking about the current Obamacare/HHS edict concerning birth control and how, if HHS stands firm and does not back down, it will affect religious hospitals. In the literature I have found, Sacred Heart specifically will be forced to close some or all its hospitals because they will not comply on religious grounds. What happens then, to BMC? What happens to our Muslim physicians?

Because of the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, and the changing attitude of the hospital formerly known as BMC, under the control of Monsignor Reed in Tallahassee, your young daughter, in need of a morning after pill or termination of pregnancy because of rape or incest, will be turned away whether or not you have insurance. If you aren’t insured, where will you go?
I guess there's always Planned Parenthood.

Employees of BMC are going to find it very difficult when their own personal religious ideology is challenged by the Church of Rome and the new management of Sacred Heart.

We have only two hospitals. Gulf Coast Hospital is private. BMC today, is public, non-profit, serving five counties. We need proof that all our needs are met, even women’s services. In the Bible Belt, you are going to feel the full impact of the strong hand of Roman Catholicism, and you are going to suffer for it. You have never been exposed; therefore, you are ignorant, and ignorant you will stay until something happens to you.

BMC’s Board and the County Commission are putting their faith into the maze of Sacred Heart spin-offs who handle leases and sales. Take LHP Hospital group for instance, located in Plano, Texas. It is not a Florida corporation, and it has a poor track record.

Touted as a for-profit private health care investment corporation, whose management team doesn’t have much prior experience in health care how can they be trusted? LHP remains unproven in successes. What it really is, is a hedge fund. You can read more about this in Rosalie Schaeffer’s expose’ on the Sacred Heart acquisition in the two-part article she wrote in the “County Press”, located in Bay County, FL and you can find it in the paper’s archives.

To add a little fat to the fire, the public is unaware of a Florida bill on Sen. Rene Garcia’s website dealing with the acquisition of hospitals. The original legislation states that a public referendum be held prior to a sale/lease of any hospital. It was handed over to Sen. Don Gaetz with another number (on his website). He changed the wording and deleted the public referendum, so that only the Board of the hospital and the County Commission can vote on the issue. Why did Gaetz strike the language that gave the public a vote? The timing is suspiciously coincidental; January, 2012. What makes it more so is that Sen. Gaetz lives about 15 miles from Sacred Heart.

I see a lot of room for corruption here. It is unreasonable to sell or lease BMC for 40 years if audits aren’t done. It is unreasonable to fast track such a vital decision because the Public Services Act, Title XVI should have been consulted by these seasoned healthcare professionals. The information is there to help failing public, non-profit hospitals with financial help. And it is unreasonable not to have the sale/lease available for bid.

It is important that we take our blinders off and see this as it really is. It is a theft of a very high-tech, superior hospital with a great reputation that gives care to everyone in need by a private, for-profit religious hospital who is giving us literally pennies on the dollar when the silver bullet to its financial woes is available by federal law!

The current administration and the Board of BMC who by design or by ignorance have run BMC aground must put this decision on hold, and the Bay County Commission and a Grand Jury investigate the missing audits and the options under the Public Services Act Title XVI. The Public Services Act XVI, the explanation of a Florida Special District and the Hill-Burton Act are found on the internet. They are in plain English and you can easily understand them.

Shands in Jacksonville supports my understanding of mismanaged indigent care costs.
Call them and find out for yourself. They spend less in indigent care than BMC does and they are profiting. It’s a huge hospital with almost 700 beds. Is there a problem here? You betcha.

I suggested when I spoke last night, the possibility of making BMC a teaching hospital under Florida State University or Gulf Coast State College. The grants would pour in and the financial ills would be a thing of the past. We would grow as a community, the economy would improve, BMC would grow and provide jobs and exceptional healthcare for many and those jobs would keep our children here.

As it stands, I believe again that the public and the employees of BMC have been duped. Law is being ignored or hidden from public view. This looks like fraud to me.

Why are we accepting this?


http://m.news-gazette.com/news/health/health-care/2011-09-04/hospitals-fear-loss-tax-exemption-illinois.html

http://archive.chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/03/illinois-supreme-court-rules-provena-must-pay-tax.html

http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/03/19/should-catholic-hospitals-remain-tax-exempt/

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&search=search#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=catholic+for+profit+hospitals+and+tax+exemptions&pbx=1&oq=catholic+for+profit+hospitals+and+tax+exemptions&aq=f&aqi=&aql=1&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=1645l19232l0l19769l62l52l7l1l1l0l546l9160l0.39.4.2.1.2l56l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=f2444c621718a756&biw=1116&bih=584



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