Governor Beshear, with consultation from the Attorney General’s office, again rejected “suggestions” offered by James Ramsey and Jim Tayor that were intended to make more acceptable the addition of the University of Louisville and its Hospital to the newly merged Catholic Health Care Initiatives entity in Kentucky.\u00a0 The Governor thought not!<\/p>\n
The substance of the suggestions was not initially made public.\u00a0 Even the Governor’s office curiously called them “private and proprietary.”\u00a0 However, President Ramsey has given his version of them to the UofL community in a broadside that continues this matter with some open threats.\u00a0 (Read his message here.<\/a>)\u00a0 In fact, President Ramsey seems openly\u00a0 to have picked a fight with the Governor and Attorney General by claiming an alternate version of reality. “We began our in depth merger conversations with the governor 18 months ago.\u00a0 He has never expressed any concerns to us about the governance structure of the proposed merged entity.”\u00a0 I do not have a feeling that this is going to end well for Dr. Ramsey and the University!<\/p>\n I am surprised at the continuing secrecy, especially since this whole merger-matter has been widely criticized for inappropriate secrecy and private dealings.\u00a0 Dr. Taylor did not initially reveal this new Plan-B,\u00a0 telling us that the University wanted the Governor to have a chance to reflect on it.\u00a0 I maintain because now that President Ramsey has released his own obviously self-serving version of the suggestions, we of the public have a right to hear it all.\u00a0 I believe the University has already waived its “privacy” with regard to its amended merger propositions, if indeed it was ever entitled to such special treatment.<\/p>\n Summarizing President Ramsey’s message to the University Community, he gives a two-choice ultimatum to the Governor:\u00a0 accept our new (and undefined) terms for merger; or give us $550 million now and $50 million yearly thereafter for a variety of activities in which research seems to be the most prominent item.\u00a0 Ramsey ends his broadside with an unveiled threat: now that we can’t\u00a0 have our way, we will reduce clinical services soon.\u00a0 Nice!\u00a0 I feel compelled to ask again, what does the University’s commercial research enterprise have to do with funding for Louisville’s safety net hospital?\u00a0 Why should research suck money out of the hospital and indigent care finding?\u00a0 Shouldn’t it be the other way around?<\/p>\n The Governor tells us again in his second rejection, that the University has strengths and record profits.\u00a0 Surely the University would not mind the rest of us hearing about them.\u00a0 I have been trying to gain a better understanding of the University’s financial relationship with its hospital and related clinical activities through public documents such as its tax filings.\u00a0 I do not have the clout to get sufficient understandable or verifiable information.\u00a0 I propose that the Commonwealth help the rest of us citizens and taxpayers evaluate the competing versions of University Hospital’s future.\u00a0 Is Governor Beshear unfairly limiting the University’s options?\u00a0 Is the University fearful of loosing another clinical shush fund?\u00a0 Is the truth neither\u2013 or both?\u00a0 \u00a0 We should not to have to ask such questions.\u00a0 I call for a state audit of the University Hospital and its financial relationship with the University of Louisville, the Quality and Charity Care Trust (QCCT<\/a>),\u00a0and the related University of Louisville Research Foundation. \u00a0 My suspicion is that the University will resist such examination with the same vigor it has resisted all previous attempts to lift the curtain on its internal management.\u00a0 It should not.\u00a0 Recent state audits of public agencies has allowed cleansing light to purify corrupt or badly managed entities.\u00a0 I respectfully assert that such examination of the University of Louisville and its faculty organizations is long overdue.<\/p>\n Peter Haselbacher, MD<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>