A long-awaited report by the Kentucky Auditor is on the way! \u00a0Later this morning we will see the report of the Kentucky Auditor regarding operations at University Hospital. \u00a0Announced 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. \u00a0There 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. \u00a0All this followed on the heels of the Passport scandal in which public money for Medicaid was diverted illegally into faculty and hospital accounts.<\/p>\n
I doubted that it is a coincidence (but am assured that it was), but this afternoon at 3:30 is also the day the University’s Ad Hoc Operations Review Committee will receive the final report from its hired outside consultants. This committee was formed in response to, or in defense of growing criticism of the University’s accountability of the QCCT fund. \u00a0As early as Jan 10, 2012, I called publicly<\/a> for a state audit of the University fund. \u00a0I will be surprised if that report gives an accounting of how the QCCT money was actually used.<\/p>\n I understand that the Auditor’s report will address governance issues, a problem also raised by the University’s own consultants. \u00a0It remains to be seen to what extent the Auditor’s office was able to follow the money trail once public funds enter the University’s networks of corporations, foundations, institutes, and faculty practices. \u00a0A minimum of $230 million dollars of clinical money is transferred into University accounts yearly. \u00a0It has been my suggestion that a full disclosure of how the University collects and spends its money is mandatory before it is allowed to cry poor and threaten to walk away from its responsibility for service to its patients.<\/p>\n The University will hold a press conference later this morning.<\/p>\n I will place a copy of the report<\/a> here as soon as I receive it.<\/p>\n Peter Hasselbacher, MD
\n23 May 2012. Updated 12:51<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>