Sunday, January 11, 2015

Singing River Saga: Sun-Herald calls out the Supervisors

Note: The problems at Singing River Health System (Jackson County) continue to mount. The Sun-Herald has been breaking stories about the troubled hospital system since November. It is important to start from the beginning, so JJ is posting stories about this fiasco starting from several weeks ago, to give readers the history of this story.

The Sun-Herald placed blame where it belonged -on the Jackson County Board of Supervisors in a December 20, 2014 editorial.  The newspaper charged:


Efforts by members of the Jackson County Board of Supervisors to protect their political futures in the wake of the Singing River Hospital System debacle would be laughable if the consequences of their failure to act responsibly were not so devastating to the thousands of families whose futures may be irreparably compromised.

The supervisors have engaged in a pitiful "public relations" campaign that seems devised to show they are earnestly concerned about the plight of the SRHS retirees and other employees who depend on the SRHS pension fund, which appears to be slipping away. There is much wringing of hands and constant assurances given to those affected that "this is a situation that we all hate to be in" and that they "are committed to the hospital employees and we are committed to the retirees and our goal is to find the answers to protect the Jackson County hospital system and to make sure we have good quality health care, a great place for the employees to work and the best possible solution for this situation for the active employees and the retirees."

Seriously? That is just gibberish and it reassures no one....

What is now plain to see is the supervisors are at the center of this mess.

It was the supervisors who appointed the members of the SRHS Board of Trustees. Those trustees were responsible for overseeing the county-owned health care system, but the supervisors were responsible for overseeing the trustees.

It was the supervisors who, year in and year out, received reports from SRHS administrators about the system's status and finances. Now it is apparent the supervisors did little more than nod their approval of the information they were given. Otherwise, how could the supervisors claim to be as shocked as nearly everyone else in Jackson County that SRHS had reported $88 million in uncollectible debt as an asset but was losing tens of millions of dollars a year?

It was the supervisors who agreed to make the taxpayers of Jackson County liable for bonded indebtedness if SRHS should default. That debt now hovers around $100 million, and the possibility of default looms larger with each passing day.

And it is the supervisors who must bear the ultimate responsibility for the past, present and future of SRHS. There simply is no one else they can pass this buck to. It stops with the board.

The most solid step the supervisors have taken is to get SRHS officials to share their financial data with them. Just how this material will differ from the information the supervisors have been provided by SRHS over the years is unknown.

But it does provide an opportunity for the Board of Supervisors to provide the public with some of that promised transparency.

In the beginning, the impact of the health system's misguided handling of its employees' and retirees' pension plan seemed to be limited to those most closely associated with Jackson County's second-largest employer.

But now, with every tax-paying property owner in Jackson County on the hook for a share of SRHS' $100 million debt, the consequences could hardly be more far-reaching. Editorial

Earlier posts on Singing River:
Singing River Saga Dec. 15: Supes make deal to see own records.
Singing River Saga Dec. 12: The court fights begin.
Singing River Saga Dec. 8: "Who knew what when" is the question.
Cartoon on Singing River
Singing River Saga, December 5: Judge freezes pension liquidation.
Adding more pieces to the Singing River puzzle
Singing River on December 3: Liquidate Pension Plan
Singing River Pension Disaster: No excuses
Singing River audit
Singing River: 23 days cash on hand, Supes want to question MBMC CEO
What the hell was going on at Singing River?






11 comments:

Moon River said...

How many Singing River threads does this blogsite really need?

Anonymous said...

Moon River, JJ should keep bringing it up until the sun sets on the crooks that created this situation and Chris Anderson is brought out of hiding, then made to answer for what he may have done. Thanks KF.

Moon River said...

But, really....three threads running simultaneously? (that means at the same time, 7:13)

Anonymous said...

How many Singing River threads does this blogsite really need?

As many, as often and as concurrent as the owner of this joint feels is necessary in order to properly document the story to his satisfaction.

As always, if you don't like it then you are free to not read anything here.

Anonymous said...

6:07, This is an important issue statewide because of the fact that the SRHS is public. What has happened within this system can happen elsewhere. The secrecy allowed by law is at the root of this scandal and must come to an end. If you do not have an interest please just skip the thread. "At the same time" you are completing your menial tasks this morning, I will be performing surgery, starting at 10:00AM. Thank you again KF for providing information to people outside of the area served by SRHS about this scandal. I can assure you thousands are appreciative.

Anonymous said...

Moon River - I will type this slowly in hopes maybe you can understand it then.

KF posts a separate thread for each new article the Sun-Herald publishes. Each thread includes a big chunk of text from the new article. There is really no way to add that much text as a comment to a pre-existing thread. It is also easier to search the archives if each topic has its own thread.

But as always - you are free to leave. Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

Anonymous said...

For anon @ 9:19; Either you are kingfish or you claim to sit at his right hand knowing his every movement.

Countless times this blog has gone about the effort of combining into one thread a bunch of ancillary and related posts and threads. Rather than allowing the door to hit me in the ass, I thought I'd recommend that be considered - for the sake of continuity and ease of posting to multiple threads. And to keep idiots like you from saying, "This was already covered in another thread, why don't you keep up or leave?"

Anonymous said...

Countless times this blog has gone about the effort of combining into one thread a bunch of ancillary and related posts and threads.

Link to a specific JJ example.

Kingfish said...

If you could read, you would see that each SR post was published on a different day. You would also know why I was doing it as I explained the reasons in the notice published at the beginning of each post.

Anonymous said...

Please keep up 2:36 PM.

Kingfish said...

Must be shadowfax. Shows the same lack of reading comprehension.



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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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