Saturday, January 10, 2015

Singing River Saga Dec. 15: Supes make deal to see their own records.

Note: The problems at Singing River Health System (Jackson County) continue to mount. The Sun-Herald has been breaking stories about the troubled hospital system since November. It is important to start from the beginning, so JJ is posting stories about this fiasco starting from several weeks ago, to give readers the history of this story.

The Sun-Herald reported on December 15 the Jackson County Board of Supervisors actually signed an agreement with the Singing River Health System to gain access to the system's financial records. (KF note: Of course, why should the county sign an agreement to review what it already owns?):

Jackson County supervisors signed a memorandum with Singing River Health System that gives them access to the health system's financial records.

The agreement continues retiree pay for up to 90 days. It also continues to eliminate mandatory 3 percent payroll deductions employees contributed to the retirement fund.

During the 90 days, the agreement says, the county will oversee an independent review of pension fund finances. If the review determines "other options" exist for the pension fund, the agreement says the health system will consider those options "reasonably and in good faith." The option the Singing River Board of Trustees chose for the pension plan was to terminate it. They voted Nov. 20 to do so with two county supervisors present, board president Troy Ross and Supervisor Mike Mangum.

As part of the agreement, the hospital also will appoint an independent trustee to oversee the plan until the review is finished. The agreement prohibits any further action that could affect the plan's operation.

"We do have a signed document that is going to give the county a mechanism to

require any and all information and help us to get our experts to determine the best outcome for our hospital situation," Ross said. "We will have a plan where we will lay out what we plan on doing, where we plan on going and how we are going to get there."

The agreement also says Singing River will give the county access to all financial information requested. Supervisors said any questions about the agreement will be answered at 9 a.m. today in a news conference to be held in the board meeting room.....

After a lengthy executive session Monday, supervisors also announced they hired the law firm of Rushing and Guice, but would not say if the attorneys were hired to deal with potential litigation involving the health system. A board attorney had said prior to entering executive session that the supervisors were going to discuss potential litigation involving the health system.

In the event of litigation, the agreement says the health system and Jackson County will be considered separate entities.

According to the agreement, the health system will provide Jackson County all documents and information requested that would allow the county a "full examination of the financial situation, currently, in the past and projected for the future of the hospital, including all of its facilities." That information will include any records related to the health system's defined benefit plan.

In addition, the agreement gives the county, through its attorneys, complete access to communicate with those employed by the hospital in the last 10 years.

The agreement allows the county access to all of the financial information so that they can independently evaluate the "current, past and future financial stability of the hospital and to properly evaluate the state of the plan." That independent review allows the county access to review "expenditures, account receivables, contracts, and accounting procedures" that ultimately led to the health system's current financial crisis..... Rest of article.

Earlier posts on Singing River:
Singing River Saga Dec. 12: The court fights begin.
Singing River Saga Dec. 8: "Who knew what when" is the question.
Cartoon on Singing River
Singing River Saga, December 5: Judge freezes pension liquidation.
Adding more pieces to the Singing River puzzle
Singing River on December 3: Liquidate Pension Plan
Singing River Pension Disaster: No excuses
Singing River audit
Singing River: 23 days cash on hand, Supes want to question MBMC CEO
What the hell was going on at Singing River?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now the JCBOS have reached an agreement with the hospital system to not allow the public any access to the SRHS records they have in hand. The SunHerald has requested an opportunity to review all the records the JCBOS received but have been denied by the board attorney Paula Yancey, who by the way, just lost a very close race against Judge Neal Harris for his seat.Such a mess they are just making more difficult as they all run for re-election this year.I predict all will lose.

Anonymous said...

Secrecy surrounds review of SRHS finances, business practices

By ANITA LEE

calee@sunherald.comJanuary 8, 2015

"Paula Yancey, attorney for the county Board of Supervisors, on Christmas Eve denied the Sun Herald's request for Singing River records the Guice & Rushing law firm is reviewing for the county. Attorney Billy Guice, who is heading the review, said Thursday that SRHS is providing the records through a Joint Defense Agreement that stipulates the documents be kept confidential. Guice said the Joint Defense Agreement also is confidential."

http://www.sunherald.com/2015/01/08/6008037/secrecy-surrounds-review-of-srhs.html

Whereby apparently publicly funded business records and expenditures are hidden under the cone of silence.

Anonymous said...

Who actually hired this guy at the Baptist Hosp ?

Anonymous said...

2:19 Excellent question. Undoubtedly some faithful steward of the Lord's money.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, at another hospital, UMMC notified all employees this week that cigarette smokers will be charged an additional $50 per month for their health insurance. This probably applies to all state employees.

Tax The Toker said...

I believe you're right, 8:17. I read the flyer about the fifty dollar tack on for tokers. There was language about allowing them to swear they're gonna try to stop and a paragraph about enrolling in a cessation program. Nothing was said about circumcision.

Anonymous said...

8:17 Baptist has started that as well.



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