Author: P Hasselbacher

Kentucky State Auditor’s Report Critical of UofL Management of QCCT Fund for Indigent Care.

University of Louisville tried to pretend they liked this report!
I could weep.

Two days ago, Kentucky’s Auditor of State Accounts Adam Edelen released a long-awaited audit of the University of Louisville’s handling of the QCCT fund. The Quality Community and Charitable Trust is funded by both state and local governments and is used by University Hospital to provide medical care to people who do not have any form of health insurance or the resources to pay out-of-pocket. The report was highly critical of the University and the QCCT Board that is controlled by the University. Despite a valiant effort by University officials to put a positive spin on the audit, every news outlet I have seen that reported on the matter emphasized the negative aspects of the report. In my opinion, the University did not help its own case in this regard.

Also two days ago, the University’s own consultants gave their final report on the hospital’s performance, and yesterday Louisville’s Mayor Fisher released his FY 2013 Budget including city funding for the QCCT fund. It has been a lot to digest all at once. Yesterday I finally had a chance to read the full text of the audit and I was stunned. The press release describing it was bad enough. The report itself is a devastating indictment of the failure of University responsibility for these public monies. Read the full report for yourself and form your own opinions. I could not believe what I was reading and that this behavior could have been allowed to go on so long. There is much accountability blame to go around. Continue reading “Kentucky State Auditor’s Report Critical of UofL Management of QCCT Fund for Indigent Care.”

Louisville Mayor Fischer’s Budget Recommends Renewal of QCCT Funding.

The funding is less, but the same!

Just minutes ago, the mayor released his budget to the Metro Council and the rest of us.  Relevant to recent discussions on these pages, Mayor Greg Fischer recommended funding the Quality and Community Care Trust for 2012-2013 at $7.0 million which actually keeps it at the 2012 level.  Here is what the Mayor had to say about the QCCT:

“This budget continues to fund external charitable agencies at the same rate I proposed last year and the same rate since merger and continues to fund, also at the same level, indigent healthcare at University Hospital. We are committed to indigent care and to being an active participantin finding solutions to the long term needs of indigent care and the challenges that University Hospital faces.”

This may appear to be a decrease, but in prior years, the University was returning $2.6 million of a larger budgeted amount of $9.6 million.  This is not a decrease in the net amount provided to University Hospital for care of those it deems eligible.  Rather it provides a more honest accounting and avoids the dysfunctional and vaguely dishonest appearance of the earlier shell game.  I think the State Auditor’s recent audit would favor this accounting change and I commend the Mayor.

What remains to be seen is how the Kentucky State Legislature will view this honest accounting.  Some in the legislature have promised that if Metro Government reduces its contribution to the QCCT fund,  that they would push for the state to reduce its own contribution dollar-for-dollar.  The Mayor’s budget does not change the net amount contributed and should not be used as an excuse to reduce the states share.  Indeed, the report from Auditor Edelen’s office tells us that the Commonwealth has been playing a little $5 million shell game of its own with the University.

None of these necessary budgetary preparations alter the demands of these pages that before additional public money is poured into the improperly managed and overpriced creature that the QCCT has become, that the University of Louisville abandon its claim that University Hospital is a private entity, that the University abandon its secret-books policies, and that we stop thinking as if the QCCT fund and University Hospital represent the total solution to our shared responsibility of financing and providing medical care to the disadvantaged.  By way of perspective, the Mayor’s budget allots $1.88 million to the city’s Family Health Centers.  I would say, why so little?  To rebut my question is to open the doors to the conversation we should be having now, not next budget time, about how to fund indigent care in Louisville and Kentucky.

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
24 May 2012

UofL Press Conference Following Release of State Auditor Edelen’s Audit of QCCT Fund.

The spin machine revs up!

Doctor’s lounge gossip last week told that the University was in a tizzy over something coming out of Frankfort about indigent care, the QCCT fund, or Passport. I made some unfruitful calls to Frankfort myself and waited for the other shoe to drop. It is clear today that the University of Louisville had received its copy of the Auditor’s report and had been preparing its responses. One of those responses was a press conference announced on apparently short notice for 10:00 this morning. (As usual, I only heard by accident.)  There were some TV cameras there and three reporters that I recognized.

The report had only been released to the public around 9:30 this morning so no one in the room other than the UofL people had had a chance to read it, or to prepare appropriate or perhaps even embarrassing questions. I still have not had an opportunity to read it myself, but judging from the press release summary, it is a very critical report. No wonder the University wanted to put a good spin on it right away! Continue reading “UofL Press Conference Following Release of State Auditor Edelen’s Audit of QCCT Fund.”

Kentucky Auditor’s Report on University of Louisville Hospital Coming Today.

A long-awaited report by the Kentucky Auditor is on the way!  Later this morning we will see the report of the Kentucky Auditor regarding operations at University Hospital.  Announced last January, the audit was initiated in response to revelations that the University had been sloppy in its oversight of the QCCT fund used to support indigent care at University Hospital.  There were already stirrings that Louisville’s Metro Council had issues with the University’s accountability for those funds. This spring’s session of the Kentucky Legislature expressed concerns over the fact that the University was rebating some of the funds to the city.  All this followed on the heels of the Passport scandal in which public money for Medicaid was diverted illegally into faculty and hospital accounts. Continue reading “Kentucky Auditor’s Report on University of Louisville Hospital Coming Today.”