Everyone is now disapproving of the fact that the Hospital is broke again? – Letter to the Editor
*Letter to the Editor*
OH My Goodness, it seems as though everyone is now disapproving of the fact that the Hospital is broke again. Where have you all been? I wrote the following years ago and none cared at the time. Read the following.
I’ve been against this fiasco from the very first day I heard of the Indigent Surtax being brought up for a vote, in order to fund the new Hospital. When Governments get involved in a project such as this, it always gets screwed up. I have never seen a government project come to fruition without extreme problems.
At the very onset of this Hospital thing I found many problems, that really bothered me, there seemed to be many improprieties. The deeper I dig into this mess, the more I find corruption, misinformation, mean spirit, and quite possibly downright thievery. Money has gone missing, four accounts in a local bank with no money in any of them. Monies owed are not paid. Things were so bad; a Ms. Underwood was to close the Hospital for neglected controls on expenses and depts. Back dated invoices from 2005 to 2004, there are many more infractions. I’ll not delve into the ineptness of this Hospital tonight, what I want to bring up, is the illegality of the way things have been handled by the Hospital Board as well as the Commissioners and our County Practicing Attorney.
In 2000 “got that”? The Hospital board received $400,000 dollars from the State Legislature for architectural services on a 50-bed Hospital. These funds were to be received through the Florida Department Of Health. The project was put out for bids and Mr. Rutherford and his group CRA. Received the contract. In 2001 CRA finished the work and came up with a $16 million dollar figure.
Today, we have a continuing contract with CRA. When the money ran out, the 2000 contract became null and void. I have yet to understand how this now dead contract with CRA became re-opened in 2006.
On 05/09/2008 Mr. Warren Irwin met with Mr. Abercrombie, where he was told “we now have 1.3 million dollars budgeted for architectural engineering costs and at that time the cost of 19,8 Million was expected for a 25 bed Hospital. That figure is now 22. something million, but then, what’s a million or three among friends right?
On 12/12/2006 A motion by Hospital board member Mr. Sale a close friend of Mr. Rutherford I’m told, was approved by a 3 to 4 margin, approving the illegal continuation of the 2000 contract with CRA, thus eliminating the bid procedure.
On 01/18/2007, the minutes of the Hospital Board state that the contract with CRA “was the right thing to do”
A few days later, the County commissioners approved this whole mess. I’ve brought all of these annoyances I’ve just mentioned to FDLE, They don’t seem to be interested, at all, what is it we say? “We’ve always done it this way.”
Now you know why I dislike Governments getting into projects such as this. It matters not if the laws are broken, laws are for the people to obey, not Governments and those that run them. The people of Madison County voted in a half-cent tax increase, for a new hospital to be built. We were told that the old hospital wouldn’t last but another three years therefore we needed to move forward in haste.
What galls me the most with this whole mess as stated above, is that, Governments are involved in the whole shenanigans. Working with Governments is like jumping rope with both hands in your pockets and on one leg only.
Here is the way it worked. Madison County wants a new hospital, however the county has no money, those in charge go to the State government however the State has no money either. Therefore the Federal government is hit up for the loan. The Feds say OK, however the Federal Government has no money either unless they take the monies needed from the Tax Payer for the monies needed to build this Hospital.
The Federal Government then taxes people from all over the United States including the working Tax Payers of Madison County in order to get the funds needed to build this hospital. Then! The working Tax Payers of Madison County must pay the Federal Government back the monies loaned to the people of Madison County from the rest of the country to build this hospital. Now ain’t that just hunkie dory?
The County Government agrees to a non-bid contract in building the Hospital, agree to give a million dollars in taxes collected thus far to the hospital in order to pay bills with.
The real kicker is that ALL the governments involved, County, State, and Federal, know this Hospital will fail as we just now found out. We have no money in Madison County, we will have the same non-paying customers we have today, supporting this new hospital. What can possibly go wrong?
God Help Us All.
George Pouliotte
I agree with George and several others that the whole deal with the hospital is a joke . I wonder if anyone in the County dream big enough to even think that we can afford to operate a new hospital if we can’t manage to run the one that we have now. As George states, the underlying problems with Madison County aren’t going away just because we build a hospital. The Doctors that we need to staff a hospital aren’t going to appear just because we have one built. Why in the heck would a Doctor want to move here to work and raise a family ? Oh I forgot, we have great schools, many cultural activities, great restaurants, and a good economy. Yeah right dream on ! Nicest place in town to eat at is a Burger King, and one of the nicest stores in town is connected to it. That crew couldn’t run a hospital even if you could unpack one from a box and hand it to them. Surely no one believes that we can operate a newer more expensive facility if we can’t run what we currently have. The average resident here can’t begin to guess what kind of funding it will take to keep the doors open on this type of facility. And while we’re on the subject the, the current administration should be ashamed of the fact that they cut all of their employees salaries just so they can remain open. Bet those employees can’t wait until the new hospital is built and all of that money rolls in so they can get their salaries restored. An old gentleman told me once that you can’t borrow your way out of debt, and this type of deal certainly makes that statement ring true. Course now that the Obama agenda has begun to hit home with some of his supporters they may begin to understand what the rest of us have voine through trying to pay for medical and insurance bills. Seems like a lot of them are smelling a rat about now after the first of his tax increases hit in January. Hopefully wiser council can impress upon our local leaders how crazy this whole idea really is.
Good points Rube. If this is a totally unconnected private group then good for them and I would expect that they would want a disconnect with the current hospital group. If indeed it is a stalking horse, then I think that some agencies will be looking into whether there has been talks offline between anyone associated with both entities. Perhaps USDA, Morgan Keegan or the other group who stand to lose – the Madison County Taxpayers and residents- will look into this.
Rube , hospital board is appointed by whomever is governor to staggered terms , 4 years per appointment & may be reappointed .
Is “Urgent Care Facility” a stalking horse to establish nexus in order to be in position to take over when new hospital fails?
Perhaps the overall strategy is one of Debt Peonage. (Google that term) Government takes on the debt. Private entity take over for pennies on the dollar. (Retired above.) Socialize the costs, privatize the profits. Going on all over the county today. Is it possible it could happen in Madison? Who appointed the hospital board members. Were any of them appointed by this guy, an expert on hospitals? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIYad3TvY6Q
George/eddie,
If this post from Urgent Care Facility is legit, I don’t understand why anyone would be other than happy that we may have a new medical facility that is privately run and that will help our tax base in Madison. Just because they are now coming out, you can not blame them as maybe they have just finished their due diligence and are realizing that this is the business model likely to work in Madison. For the past six or seven years that the hospital has been working on finalizing the new facility they are building it looks as if they would have also gone this route or at least analyzed this type of facility as an option but my understanding is that this was not done on their end. Hell. I hope they all work and prosper, but with the past history of having trouble in this market of making a traditional hospital work, it looks as if the urgent care approach may be more feasible. Good luck to all.
@George:
It reads like a very bad joke. Too much of the post is suspicious.
@ Urgent Care Facility says.
I certainly hope this isn’t, a bad joke.
After conducting a due diligence study of Madison County, Florida. I feel now is the proper time to announce that as a group it has been decided to generate and initiate a “urgent care” facility in the Madison area. It is not our desire to compete with the existing or new hospital. It is planned to offer primary and acute care, along with Laboratory, x-ray, and patient stabilization. This will be a 24 hour facility with Physicians and ARNP’s providing a level of care as demanded. There will be no release of financials, etc as we are privately owned. My apology for non identification at this time, but will be forth coming. We look forward to caring for Madison and surrounding Florida and Georgia Counties. Look forward to eventually meeting all. (there is no government involvement other than licensing, ect,)
Hmm, so what I need to do to get a real business going is just go ahead and get the gov. involved because all the sheeple will let them run over them.
This fiasco and the Lee sewer system just to name a few, shows me exactly that.
No wonder women get raped and nothing is done to put the fear of god in men around the world to not do it. Sheeple don’t care enough.
Oh ye of little faith.
As to date MCMH has utilized an outside billing source (Pioneer) which in the past has taken over some of the hospitals for which they did the billing for, due to nonpayment or lack of payment. MCMH is in that category, so it seems that a new hospital built off the taxes and (a government grant) of the citizens of Madison County (which will have to be paid back by the citizens of Madison County) will belong to a company out of Mississippi. Which means out of the control of the people of Madison County. All this info can be checked out, just ask the administration that is in charge now, Oh and by the way which needs to be replaced alone with all the upper management.
Retired , the county commissioners that released the INDIGENT CARE SURTAX (1/2 cents sales tax ) to begin construction told me that it is a known that the new hospital will default at some point , then it will be up to the feds & state to find someone to take it over . The goal is simply to get a new building in place for a suitor to take over . Some would call that loan fraud but then the USDA was aware of these factors also & the revenue projections were totally unbelievable . The USDA was aware of this too . Then commissioner Parrish was the only one to vote NO on the release of funds as she knew is was a sure financial loser & would not bend to pressure .
I agree an urgent care facility plus a QUALITY 24/7 clinic is what this community can afford but when then administrator Kim Barnhill of the Madison County Health Dept. brought that very idea up at a meeting , Abercrombie & the hospital board said that was the most horrible idea they ever heard . So that is where we are at .
My experiences has also been great with the staff and hospital. Issue I see is as Knottypine eluded to. If we build what is unatainable, we may very well end up with nothing. To this day, I have never attended a hospital presentation where the financial side of this whole package was presented. Where the leadership took us through a presentation of why the past financial situation has been so dire, yet the financial situation going forward with new facility is projected to work. Summary of past performance by year and then summary of the projected performance going forward by year for the new facility on a powerpoint or chalkboard or something. This should quell the nay sayers and has obviously been done with USDA application. Any yes. I realize that the hospital is open and will provide any financial information requested; however, hard for thousands of concerned residents to individually go to hospital, pick up financial information and pull it all together. Just summarize and present for us please, so people will have a peace of mind and this project can move forward with even more support.
I want this deal to work and I ain’t from here so no skin in the game one way or the other. Just keep hearing on the street from some folks involved that we nee to just go along with this deal and let USDA fund it. Will most likely fail, and then USDA will work this out with county and then let another party come in and take over for pennies on the dollar. Just saying what I have heard and maybe hospital leadership, board members and some county commissioners can attest to whether they have heard this on the street also and if there is any substance to it. Also, I am absolutely perplexed that there has not been another scenario brought to county over the past ten years that would explain why we should not team up with an experienced and financially healthy provider such as TMH or SGRMC. I realize they would never go along with an up front support of the current facility as they would most likely see it as unatainable; however, I bet they would have jumped all over some type of urgent care facility. Maybe hospital leadership can also take us through the analysis they have done of these types of partnerships or why they have not considered this approach. “We dont’t want to lose control,” or “If we did that USDA would not lend us the money for the current facility” ain’t the right answer either.
George George George. Don’t you realize there’s no place for common sense and logic in Madison County. And let’s not forget that our wonderful conservative Governor appointed a Liberal to fill the empty Dist. 4 commissioners seat. Ah what a great country and county we live in.
DI , glad you received good care from all involved . That is not what we are discussing here , we are discussing financials . Do you have any ideas on how the hospital can increase it’s positive revenue flow ? Any thoughts on how the hospital can make up the losses from the no pays , partial pays & Medicaid where each service is a loser for the hospital ? If not , it may not be there when you & others need it .
Follow the money, when same firm build the jail, guess what they got paid by a % of total cost. So where the need to SAVE money? NOPE they got more money if they spent more.. Better be sure and check contract for hospital. Why not pay a bonus if they come in UNDER price for building……..only in Madison, a few will get rich at the expense of the many!!!!!
@ Di Says
My letter to the Editor has absolutely nothing to do with the personnel working at the Hospital. I have been to the Hospital on several occasions for testing, and found everyone working there to be very polite and professional. My problem is with the Hospital working with Governments and underhanded tactics, now please tell me why should the people taking care of us, have to take a cut in pay? It’s because of bad politics.
Anytime a Hospital or any other business is under the influence of a Government, it then becomes totally and completely under the control of that Government. I worked for a hospital for a few years; we controlled every dime spent and earned by the hospital. We were able to build a brand new 90-bed hospital with no help from any governmental agency’s help, therefore we were able to run the thing without any encumbrances and having to answer to some twit working for some government agency. Our employees were able to keep their earnings.
I went back for a visit six years later, that same Hospital had plans in the works for adding another forty beds and succeeded in that plan. I received an e-mail from Doctor Amalfitano a very dear friend of mine in 2010 that they now had 190 beds available with two ER’s, two OR’s and two OB’s. No Government agency was involved at all in that growth.
This Hospital made enough money to grow, why can’t we do that here in Madison? We seem to have problems in collecting monies owed, I know people that can collect those monies, it may not be a nice collection, but we will get our monies and then able to fill our coffers and pay our bills, without any government agency controlling each and every factor of the Hospitals business. Our new Hospital is doomed to fail with the control we now have. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it, frightening is it not?
George
I fell over my dog, broke my shoulder, had my Mother drive me to the Madison Hospital. Everyone there was very professional. They needed to send me to T-town due to the severity of my injury. The EMS drivers were awesome. I have nothing but good things to say about the Madison hospital.
Yes George , & as you heard at many of the county commission meetings on the hospital , architectural/engineering costs are now over $2 million on this no bid contract which as you stated to the commissioners is illegal on two points . They just sat there & looked at you & asked not one question . You see , the few monied interests that run this county wield total influence in Tallahassee & also with the feds & they may not be touched . That is why no one you contact will do anything no matter how illegal it is . Unless the county commission raises taxes or institutes a new tax to support this disaster there will be a new hospital building sitting there with inadequate funds to staff or run it . I think that was the plan to begin with among those that know , let the feds & state find someone to take it over . “That’s the way it’s always been here .”