What If… on Friday it was announced during a half hour afternoon press conference that earlier in the day the Deaconess/Methodist affiliation was finally finalized? What if some late in the game effort convinced Fifth Third Bank to supply the funding or was Deaconess able to convince Alteon to pony up some money if they will have seats on the board? What if they went through all the arguments in the previous board meeting with the Methodist Church just to call it…”Methodist Health, Inc.” not very different from what it is now? What if Deaconess officials for the first time used the term “ownership” to reference their 33% or 3 seats on the Methodist board which may come as a surprise to many who were told this was just an affiliation and not an eventual acquisition? What if the new 9-member board was confirmed as well as many other points that had been reported in this outlet and other Facebook groups all along? Who will constitute the rest of the board, and who are the referenced “independent” members? What if the three administrators who spoke at the press conference continued to use the terms “local” and “independent” and that latching onto terms used by the opposition is a frequent tactic of political officials who know they are lacking in a certain area?
What If… they even scrubbed references to “community” in their new filings with the state of Kentucky under the new (old) Methodist name? What if along with the Methodist Church the community of Henderson was an equal and essential partner in maintaining Community United Methodist Hospital once the federal government acquiesced ownership back in the 1960s? What will former Gleaner writer Frank Boyett and other community leaders say now that Deaconess is proceeding forward without addressing the community’s concerns and seemingly removing all references to the decades-long involvement of the Henderson community? What if Union County had located the buyback paperwork before it hit the shredder, or are they satisfied now that they will be getting an ER upgrade? What if the $5 million ER remodel promised for Union County in the press conference is a fairly small price to pay for taking the $10-12 million that was stored at Field & Main of mostly Union County money which could have been used to remain very profitable on their own?
What If… there still are a lot of unanswered questions like the #MeToo allegations against a former CEO, that same disgraced CEO making repeated phone calls to a current administrator and another recently dismissed administrator, the group of board members resigning at once a few years back asking “where are the books”, very questionable dismissals of some administrators, documents being allegedly shredded in Union County, a significant lack of transparency during the entire process including a cancelled public forum, a local news media outlet that turned a blind eye through the process, board members that have problems complying with HIPAA requirements, a hospital they claimed was failing that actually had more than $30 million in liquidity as recently as June 2016, and much more? What if these areas could just be the tip of the iceberg if the FTC or other federal investigators finally come in and stop Deaconess from its rapidly expanding monopoly?
What if… What if some Deaconess administrators have already admitted wishing they had never started this affiliation if they had known what they did by the time it was done? What if Deaconess CEO Shawn McCoy at an invite-only Quorum Health meeting in Nashville spoke to an audience a few weeks ago about the specifics of this process? What if some of them actually come forward to spill the beans on exactly how he described the interaction with large hospital “affiliations”? What if this is all part of creating a health care network that’s “too big to fail”? What if Deaconess becomes too big and does fail and all the affiliated hospitals are no longer able to operate with such significant debts that on paper should make them insolvent especially with Deaconess no longer in the picture? What if that happens and both hospitals will actually be on the hook for the $17 million Epic cost plus all the other new debt that will probably exceed $57 million, and will Henderson and Union Counties bear the responsibility eventually?
Henderson Mayor/Methodist Hospital Board Member – Steve Austin
What If… repercussions for the Henderson Gleaner will result in its eventual decline like many media sources in this country that are disinterested in reporting actual news instead of relying only on puff pieces? Will Methodist Hospital eventually join them in closing its doors like Welborn Baptist did shortly after St. Mary’s acquired them? Is the new advisory board going to be overseeing a foundation similar to the way Welborn Foundation was created in Evansville or did enough funds get siphoned off that nothing is left? What if many of Henderson’s larger organizations go this direction and the taxpayers are expected to foot the bill, taxes will rise, and the population will decline forcing a downward spiral? Will Mayor Austin, who is apparently staying on the board at Methodist, be long gone from office by the time damage is irreversible like with the electric company? Is it possible he will never be held accountable for the path he put these essential organizations on… let alone what he did as mayor? What if instead of continuing down that failed path, the people in Henderson vote him out in November?
