Screwed, Blued and Tattooed
That Is How Lee Administration Sees It For J. Q. Public aka "Done Deal"
The joke is on us. The phrase screwed, blued and tattooed means the insiders have just passed the message and excluded the outsiders. That is just what this afternoon’s public hearing was all about. Let me set the background…
Set a four in the afternoon, middle of the week “public meeting” at the newest hospital Lee Health owns. Basically eliminate all wage-earning as well as health care providers from the discussion.
Sign in sheets to “document” the rebels/concerned citizens who managed to get off work or brave the Daniels and Metro intersection traffic.
Sign in again if you are going to speak at the mic.
Set the order of when a citizen speaks.
Preface the meeting with directed statements by administration circumventing already public stated criticism of the plan.
Provide a 5 minute limit for statements of a highly complex issue.
Start with 3-4 “praising reviews” of individuals who have had care in the only system in town. Make sure they state they are in favor of the administrations intentions.
Make sure one person claims health care is a right and everyone regardless of means deserves the highest level of care. Go further and insist that only a benevolent “not for profit” entity is capable of providing that care.
Toss in the one dissenting voice towards the end.
Finish with a repeat promotion from a Wall Street/Goldman Saks “expert” regarding the merits of private not-for-profit business modeling. Could this person be looking for a future board seat?
So What Is The Dissenting Opinion?
My intention was to read my petition in its entirety and inform the voted Board of Directors that 111 signatures to date support the request to pause and request a full accounting of the public’s assets before surrendering them to a, yet to be decided, future, private not-for-private corporate structure. Further, at least 7 of those signatures are from actual doctors in the community.
My communication intent was sabotaged by the leading commentators, as I had to rebut several statements given as “gospel and verse’ for Lee Health. That took 3-4 of 5 minutes time allotted for comments.
In my comments today, I had to point out to all the eager beavers that Lee has yet to discuss, outline or describe the “covenant agreement” that they will be negotiating with the county commissioners. They “promise” us it will secure charitable care to the region. Yet…. we have no clue what they intend to agree to. WE DO KNOW THEY WANT TO DISSOLVE THEIR PRESENT AGREEMENT SET 50 YEARS AGO.
Reminder to the public, the county commissioners are the appointed representatives of the public’s interests in this matter. They too, should want a full business accounting and valuation of the public’s property before “giving it over” to this new shell company. Further, they need to also assess what it means if a plan other than one devised for the survival of the Lee administration and leadership would benefit the public community better. What happens to the Lee Foundations’s monies and agreements in this new corporate structure? How about their current contracts and agreements done by various non-public and shell companies?
Lee doesn’t contribute any business nor property tax to our community and simultaneously by their monopoly power and preferred Medicare payment rules, cost the average (non indigent) citizen a higher market price for services rendered. Is it really in the public’s interest to gouge 97% to provide “free” care to the 3%?
Here is the meat of the petition:
Lee Health as an organization is owned by the Lee County public. The public and the present board representing the public is being asked to consent to a transfer of ownership to a private not for profit new governance and business status. The decision will transfer all the public's Lee Health assets to the new entity.
As Lee Health moves forward with seeking dissolution of its public charter with intent of dissolution of it's public board, and in order to provide the public shareholders of Lee Health full and accurate information, the public is owed a full disclosure of all Lee Health assets by item and business relationships by contract. To date the public has only been provided an analysis of potential costs and market concepts via the Kaufman report paid for by Lee Health for public consumption.
It is possible that the public would be better served by diminishing Lee Health's current assets and allow for a sale of assets to other market participants. It is not possible to assess the impact of such a proposal without a full accounting and understanding of the public's assets. Lee health would have to pay for such accounting and reporting and thus it needs to be demonstrated that there is adequate public interest in posing the questions and requesting the information.
This petition is seeking signatures to show to the board and the Lee county commission the level of public interest in gaining this information. Further, the signatures represent an interest in an honest assessment of how taking an alternative path as suggested would benefit and or potentially harm the public.
Let’s take another side step here.
Lee Health’s PR department stated in a NewsPress article that I was pandering my concerns for a for profit entity. Let me state this clearly- THAT IS PATENTLY FALSE. No company has ever approached me on this matter. I am speaking purely from a community physician and citizen’s perspective. I am listening to the dog and pony show and I see no substance. I have been gifted with a nasty perspective called critical thinking.
Further, I reviewed the paid for Kaufman report and it is either a Carpet Bagger’s catering project or simply a marketing outfit for the Lee Administration. Lee historically has a penchant for hiring out-of towner’s to provide the public with a sense of “expertise”.
The biggest red flag in the Kaufman report is the stated 5.3 million price tag for insuring the massive Lee Health physician work force for malpractice. Did Kaufman provide us one reference for pricing that? I didn’t see it in the report- did you? Did they consider the risk of the ever increasing non physician extenders now attending all the hospital beds and serving as inpatient specialty consultants? Does anyone believe with the removal of sovereign immunity, the malpractice risk doesn’t rise by multiples with this level of training in charge of patient care?
I will make a prediction for everyone. The price of giving up sovereign immunity is multiples higher than 5.3 million annual expense. The Kaufman Report needs a scrutinous review.
The cost of this plan short term is 100-200 million in revenues including federal funding for indigent care. That is reported in the Kaufman report. This means Lee Health’s new organization has to make this up in profitable business WHILE competing with outside competitors coming into this market. Common sense tells me this ends very badly, for Lee and this means for the public.
Unless…..
There is some other plan. What is the real plan? What is to stop the new entity from THEN ASKING FOR AN APPRAISAL OF ASSETS WITH SALE AS INTENT? Admittedly by Dr. Antonucci, at a point of sale is when Lee Health will ask for the audit I am requesting on behalf of the public NOW. They don’t want us to know what is at stake materially. THAT IS AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER. Given Lee Health’s past 19 years of behavior, they do not deserve the public’s trust.
I think that is what the publicly voted Hospital Board needs to figure out. They have been asked and advised to go beyond the rhetoric and the dog and pony show and perform their due diligence. We have a petition that if listened to, will provide not only necessary but appropriately, for the public, important information to root out the plan.
Lee habitually seeks “Experts” from out of town. When they started their Hospitalist program, they looked past their entire local LPG primary care group and contracted an outfit from California.
Lee Health paying for the Kauffman report is like having Pfizer paying for the efficacy report of the Covid vaccine. Unbelievable, is Lee Health now spying on everyone who attended or spoke at the meeting?