Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Inside baseball: Warren County edition

One election that received little coverage yesterday was the House District #54 race yesterday.  The district is primarily Warren County.  Representative Alex Monsour vacated the seat when he became an aldermen in Vicksburg earlier this year.  Kevin Ford clobbered Dr. Randy Easterling despite being outspent nearly 2:1.  The campaign finance reports yield some rather interesting information.


Mr. Ford's most recent report was submitted on November 21.  His total contributions were $43,050.

Ms. Assn. of Nurse Practitioners PAC: $2,750
Ms. Nurses Assn. Executive Director: $300
Kevin Ford: $5,000
Dr. John Ford: $5,000
MPPC PAC: $2,000
Optometry for Progress PAC: $500
Mississippi Physicians PAC: $500
David Langley (Nurse Pract.): $500
Ms. Nurses Association: $1,000
MANA PAC: $1,000



Dr. Easterling is a past-President of the Mississippi State Medical Association and currently sits on the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure.  He raised over $75,000 for this special election.  What is interesting is how several PAC's for health care-related trade associations opposed Dr. Easterling.  The notable contributions are:

Mississippi State Medical Association PAC: $35,000
Mississippi Emergency Association: $1,000
Mississippi Society of Anesthesiologists: $500
Charmaine & Michael Kanosky: $1,000*
Ms. Hospital Association PAC: $500
Several physicians: $1,000 each.

*Mrs. Kanosky is Executive Director of MSMA.

The reports show one more example of the cozy relationship that exists between this particular member of the medical board and the trade association of the industry his board regulates.  JJ reported in June:

The Mississippi State Medical Association represented the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure for two years as a lobbyist.  The Board paid MSMA $30,000 in fees for its services.  The Board is the regulatory agency for physicians in Mississippi. MSMA calls itself "the largest physician advocacy organization in Mississippi, representing nearly 5,000 physicians and medical students."

The Board voted at its January 2014 meeting to hire the Mississippi State Medical Association as a lobbyist.*

Board President Dr. Randy Easterling "advised" the board to hire the MSMA to push the Board's legislation and monitor other bills as well.   The contract term was for one year but the board voted at the January 2015 meeting to renew it for another year.  The Board paid MSMA $15,000 per year for the two years.  MSMA registered the Board as a client each year with the Secretary of State as required by law.  The Board did not renew the contract in 2016 but did hire the Clay Firm last January.  Post.
 It is rather interesting that several health care provider groups would oppose someone so well-connected in the Mississippi medical establishment. 






14 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It is rather interesting that several health care provider groups would oppose someone so well-connected in the Mississippi medical establishment. "

Easily understood - the examples you listed are all non-physicians. The Nurse Practitioners like to pretend they are physicians; the Optometrists (4 year's college) like to pretend they are as capable as as ophthalmologists (college, med school, 4 years of residency, maybe a fellowship afterwards). It's a classic turf battle, all over $$$.

I'm a physician with 17 years practice in MS, and almost every MD I work with here despises the Board and MSMA. It's not surprising MS ranks dead last in so many measures of health care quality. Sad.

Anonymous said...

First of all, Mississippi Physicians PAC: $500 -- sounds like physicians to me. Could be wrong.

Here's the thing, Randy has spent his time on the board trying to put pretty much anyone, who isn't a physician but works in healthcare, out of business. This isn't about turf... this is about the ability to practice your profession without interference from a board (read: Randy) who is trying to regulate you out of business because he doesn't like competition.

There's a reason the Gov and leadership has oversight on 'self-regulated boards' now... it's well known in the Capitol as the Eastering rule. The man has run amok for so long -- and his chickens have finally come home to roost.

Anonymous said...

Randy is a total self absorbed quack.

He ran an addiction unit to suck money rather than help people.

He’s the worst type of doctor....one who uses his abilities to enrich only himself.

I’ve known him for a very long time.

I’m surprised he thought he could actually win an election for any office.

The best thing he can do is retire.

Who You Gonna Trust? said...

But, Gallo thinks he hung the damned moon. And Gallo is, well, self absorbed.

Anonymous said...

Both of Kevin Fords parents are well respected doctors in the community. Kevin grew up in Bovina/ Culkin area. Inside baseball is you have to carry Culkin box to win. No need to comment on the opponent

Anonymous said...

4:06, MS is dead last in healthcare because your arrogant ass really thinks you’re the only one qualified to provide healthcare. Scratch that... you don’t mind non-MDs providing care, you just think that MDs are the only ones who should get paid for it. You guys continue to push this bogus narrative that nonMDs are violating their scope of practice and itherefore its a patient safety issue. You guys keep screaming that w/o providing any incident numbers whatsoever. BS! Given the legal climate here, there aren’t many nonMDs willing to risk a lawsuit because they want to “play” MD. If you were truly interested in patient outcomes, safety, more importantly the complete absence of care in areas, you’d be focused on collaboration rather than your wallet. There’s nothing wrong with making money either, but let’s call it what it is without demeaning other hard working professionals.

Anonymous said...

Inside Baseball, that you covered, KF. Remember MSMA throwing a fit about the new regs from the board? Randy was pushing them. So, he’s may be a pushy ass (as has been intimated in these comments), but he obviously ain’t for sale to MSMA. They donated $35K to him while he Strongly supported something that they vehemently opposed.

A wise old Appropriations Chairman once said: “Boys, if you can’t eat their steak and drink their whiskey tonight and vote against ‘em in the morning; you don’t need to be here.”

Anonymous said...

7:47 You want to practice medicine, go to medical school. End of story.

Anonymous said...

Was Ed Perry an appropriation chairman?

Anonymous said...

Look for Gallo to have a stand-in host for about three days while he's in mourning. He'll tell the HR Girl to charge it to Bereavement Leave.

Anonymous said...

I'm frankly puzzled by the notion of competition between trained medical support staff and doctors.
I've lived in two states where there was not only no competition but rather grateful cooperation.
It's frees a doctor to treat seriously ill patients in a timely manner. His sickest patients aren't waiting while he plows through those who didn't need to see him in the first place.
A good doctor is not threatened but aided by such support in the system and it keeps costs for all of us down.
If all you need are glasses because you are near sighted or far sighted, you're going to either pay once to get them or pay twice as guess to whom your ophthalmologist will send you next to the optometrist.
You can pay a doctor for a routine swab or test that has normal results or you can pay less for a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant to do the same.
This is a non issue being artificially made into a political issue by those who count on voter ignorance.


Anonymous said...

9:01 - Guess what? 'Voters' don't have any knowledge of or concern about all this back-story bullshit in the first place. None of what you mention had any impact on the contest for the legislative seat. People in this state bother to vote on a legislative candidate for one of four reasons: He is the same color as me or He thinks like I think or I've heard his name for years or Everybody I know says they're going to vote for him.

Anonymous said...

@9:27– you missed one; “Over half of the district hates him because he is pompous.”

Anonymous said...

Interesting comments. Especially the "if you want to practice medicine, go to medical school". DOs do not go to medical school. DCs do not go to medical school. But both practice in healthcare. APRNs don't go to medical school, and they don't practice medicine. They practice Advanced Practice Nursing. Don't hate, but please educate yourselves.



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