- Saul Alinsky, “Rules For Radicals”
There was a lot of feedback to my post on Monday regarding
the Jefferson Parish Hospital Privatization deal championed by JP Sheriff Newell
Normand. I heard from elected officials and members of the general public who
have no vested interest in the potential lease of East Jefferson General
Hospital (EJ) and West Jefferson Medical Center (WJMC), other than their desire
for community healthcare.
The feedback was polarized: Officials want the privatization
because they contend the hospitals cannot continue to survive on their own; the
public thinks they are being hoodwinked and left out of the process. Obviously, I'm on the side of the public.
Even with the Public Meetings that are emceed by Sheriff
Normand and WJMC’s highly compensated CEO Nancy Cassagne, the false arguments
and misinformation continue.
Yesterday, in a Baton Rouge meeting, I heard Jefferson
Parish President John Young continue to evoke the standard talking points
parroted at every opportunity by Normand, Cassagne and others:
- "
Even if they were combined, which they are legally
not allowed to, EJ and WJMC wouldn’t be able to survive."
- "If there were to be a public vote on the lease
of the hospitals, the losing group(s) would advertise and impact the vote to
hurt the winning bidder."
- "If we don’t do something now, the hospitals will
be forced to close soon."
With all due respect to President Young, those arguments are
-
False
-
False
- And, False
Let’s take them in order.
The Financial
Viability of the Hospitals
If EJ and WJMC were allowed to combine, that would put both
hospitals in a better competitive position and allow even more resources to go
toward providing a greater level of specialized care for Jefferson Parish Residents.
The two hospitals could reduce administrative costs, have
additional purchasing power to lower overhead, and share more resources.
Currently, the hospitals are only allowed by law to share
some minor back office functions and are also geographically protected.
So, why don’t we change those laws?
Why not take steps to combine the two and allow the
hospitals to continue to serve the community while also allowing them to grow?
Why not try that FIRST before signing a 30-year lease and giving away the use of
two of Jefferson Parish’s prime assets and healthcare delivery systems?
To Vote Or Not To
Vote, That Is The Question
While it might be true that a competitor could advertise and
potentially sabotage a vote, that isn’t the issue.
You see, the public should not vote on THE lease; it should
be allowed to vote on A lease.
No member of the public that I’ve spoken with wants to vote
and rate whether Ochsner’s deal is better than Children’s or HCA’s. But, they
do think they should have the right to vote on whether EJ and WJMC are leased
at all.
The officials proposing the changing of the state law to
take the public out of the equation have framed the question improperly. EJ and WJMC are OUR HOSPITALS, not theirs and
the fact that Sheriff Normand and Ms. Cassagne, who combined had no prior
medical administration experience before Sheriff Normand was added to the EJ
Board and Cassagne was named WJMC CEO, just muddy the waters and lead to even
more scrutiny by the public of their flawed decision making.
Sheriff Normand’s tenure on the EJ Board predates his time
as Sheriff. Clearly, someone who has been the EJ Board for more than 15 years
should claim some responsibility for EJ’s ills.
And, Ms. Cassagne’s overly generous salary and lack of
hospital experience give her ZERO credibility to make a decision that would
influence the future of healthcare in Jefferson Parish.
Anytime you remove the public from having a voice in major
decisions affecting the community, it’s wrong and President Young knows this.
Normand and Cassagne know it too, they just don’t care.
12 years later, Elmwood still floods and every time it does
or another street in JP floods, an elected official always goes on the radio or
television and says, “Well, we had 2 inches of rain the first hour and the
pumps aren’t designed to handle that amount of high-intensity/short-duration
rain.”
If I had a Nickel for every time I heard the words, “high-intensity/short-duration
rain”, well…I wouldn’t be writing a blog now would I?
My point is that the wheels of government turn incredibly
slow on some issues yet, with the hospital deals the public is fed the line “If
we don’t do something NOW, the hospitals will fail.”
Now they’ve added the line that “If we don’t lease the
hospitals, we’ll need another property tax to support them.”
First, neither hospital is in dire financial straits. Sure,
they lost money last year – I would bet that almost every hospital in America
lost money last year. EJ and WJMC aren’t anomalies, they are the norm.
In addition, since I’ve lived here, the hospitals have never
required additional public support.
Second, if the hospitals did require a property tax (and
that is certainly also open to debate since JP Government at all levels could
be cut to offset any financial loss from the hospitals), so what? We already
pay millages for recreation, law enforcement, water, sewerage, education and
everything else under the sun.
In their talking points, officials claim that EJ “lost”
about $11 Million last year while WJMC lost about $4 Million.
When it is ever completed, if it is ever completed, the JP
Council has authorized a $1 Million per year subsidy for SMG to “manage” the
Jefferson Performing Arts Center. Do you mean to say that, if pushed by the
public, JP Government couldn’t find $10 Million in the budget somewhere to pay
for healthcare? I would personally volunteer my time to help them find items for
them to cut (of course, I’m sure they don’t want my opinion).
How much could the hospitals save if they merged, shared
resources and reduced costs?
Why aren’t we (the public) given those numbers so we can
make an educated decision about the future of healthcare in our parish? Why are
the elected officials working so hard to go around us instead of educating us? Why
is our right to vote and have a say in our future being taken away from us by
Sheriff Normand and a handful of legislators in Baton Rouge?
I know what Normand, Cassagne and their paid consultants
think – I want to know what the options are.
From what I’ve heard, you do too.
Now, who has a Nickel - it's starting to rain.
