Author: P Hasselbacher

Dr. David Dunn Receives $1.15 Million While Parting From UofL

A lot happened today at the Executive Committee meeting of the UofL Board of Trustees.  I was unable to attend. It is being reported that UofL and KentuckyOne Health are dissolving the Joint Operating Agreement under which KentuckyOne managed most of the clinical activities of University of Louisville Hospital. I do not yet have access to the details of the dissolution process which had a myriad of contractural agreements to settle including penalties and non-compete clauses. I hope to be able to provide an analysis in coming days. Much may be revealed in the fine print, including why KentuckyOne will continue to put money into University Hospital.  The two entities have agreed to prepare new Academic Affiliation Agreements that would allow UofL faculty and trainees to interact at Jewish Hospital, and for Jewish Hospital to capture the financial, research, and reputational advantages of being a teaching hospital.

Another matter that was apparently dealt with at today’s meeting was the status of Dr. David Dunn, one of the principal architects of the agreements with CHI and KentuckyOne, but who has been on the sidelines for many months while he was being investigated by the FBI for possible misuse of federal money,  To my knowledge, the status of that investigation has not been made public.  Dr. Dunn has been being paid one of the very highest salaries in the University even though his contract has reportedly expired.

Today, the status of Dr. Dunn has apparently been settled. The University provided the statement below in response to my request for an update:

“The University of Louisville and Dr. David L. Dunn have reached an agreement related to his employment at the university. As of Dec. 12, 2016, Dr. Dunn is no longer an employee of the University of Louisville. Dr. Dunn leaves the university as a tenured, full professor in good standing. To compensate for his relinquishing his tenured position, Dr. Dunn will receive $1.15 million.”

Some have speculated that the Board has taken no action with respect to Dr. Dunn because it agreed not to take other than “routine” actions in a settlement of a lawsuit by a group of community ministers over the racial make-up of the Board. Perhaps no action was appropriate.  The Board recently prefaces its retirement into executive session by declaring that it is for “routine” matters only. I must say that I felt uncomfortable with the optic earlier this month when the full Board terminated the tenure of an African-American faculty member.  To that person, no matter what the merits of the situation, the termination action was hardly routine. I would argue that an agreement to deal only with routine or non-structural matters no matters longer holds any water and in fact has already been abandoned.  That is as it should be!  Dissolution of the Joint Operating Agreement is no more or less routine than granting degrees, approving a budget, hiring fiduciary auditors, granting or removing tenure, or for that matter, raising tuition. Perhaps there are legal niceties of language to be honored, but this Board is doing exactly  exactly what needs to be done and must be allowed to do in an unfettered manner.

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL
President, KHPI.
December 13, 2016

Somethings Big Are In The Air

The Executive Committee of the UofL Board of Trustees is assembling now. The executive committee can act for the whole. I predict it will vote on the relationship with KentuckyOne Health. It is likely the vote will involve severance of the joint operating agreements. UMC would then take control of the entire Hospital. From what I have heard, and because of recent financial events, I will be surprised if this does not happen.

Tomorrow the State Auditor will announce the results of the audit of the relationship between the University and its Foundation. I understand that the audit will not be kind.

We will soon know more.

Peter Hasselbacher

Drop In Value of UofL Endowment Confirmed.

Endowment growth stalling compared to other institutions.

Numerous earlier reports by Mr. Chris Otts of WDRB brought to the attention of the public information about financial dealings of enough concern that at least two major donors to the University of Louisville withdraw their support, triggering in large measure an intervention by the University of Board of Trustees to take a more controlling role in the University of Louisville Foundation and a full-scale fiduciary audit. This latter offers the potential to clear the air or to lead to even more troublesome revelations. Mr. Otts’s latest report  deals with unauthorized spending of the University’s endowment by the Foundation in support of its commercial research, real estate, and other agendas both known and unknown. The result has been a substantial fall in the value of the endowment as its principal is consumed.

Sparked by Mr. Otts’s use of information provided to him by the University as reported to the American Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO); and by comments made by Trustees Greenberg and Benz at last week’s meeting of UofL Trustees raising serious concerns about the endowment; I went to NACUBO’s website myself.  Summary files for public use are available including the market values of the endowments of some 850 of the most important Colleges and Universities in the US and Canada from 1990 to 2015.  I abstracted these and plotted the market value of UofL’s endowment along with its rank among other institutions in this regard. Spending information or investment yields for individual institutions are not made available to the public, although summary statistics on aggregates in broad categories are available. A static image is presented below, and an interactive version revealing the underlying data is available.

In summary, the amount of our endowment rose progressively from 1990 until around 2007 after which much volatility occurred to the point that the market value of the endowment in 2016 is indeed less than it was 10 years ago in 2006!  UofL appears to be eating its nest egg, and compared to other institutions of higher education, is losing ground in endowment growth.

uofl-endowment-1900-2016
Continue reading “Drop In Value of UofL Endowment Confirmed.”

Credit Ratings for UofL, UofL Foundation, and CHI Downgraded.

Financial stresses abound.

In the space of a week, Moody’s Investor Services released credit opinions for the University of Louisville and the University of Louisville Foundation; and Catholic Health Initiatives published its Annual Report for the Fiscal year ending June 30, 2016.  The results were not very pretty. The rating for the bulk of the University’s existing bonds dropped one grade to A1 with an outlook determined to be stable. The Foundation did not fare as well. Its rating dropped three steps to A3 with an outlook revised to negative. Catholic Health Initiatives disclosed operating and non-operating losses totaling $667 million. CHI had declines in its own bond ratings earlier this year, due largely to excessive debt reported to stand at $9 Billion as it seeks to partner or merge with another Catholic hospital chain. The drops in grade and financial losses are by themselves troubling.  However, language in the details of the reports links the organizations together, highlights the harmful consequences of recent management and political manipulations on the University, overestimates the health of current business relationships between the parties, and underestimates the impact of promised roll-backs to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act on the financial health of our local hospitals and the University.  For these reasons, I fear that things are going to get worse before they get better. Continue reading “Credit Ratings for UofL, UofL Foundation, and CHI Downgraded.”