VolusiaNews.net and NSBNews.net provide Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world.
Courtesy photo / Gov. Scott has created a commission to review the viability of taxpayer-funded hospital districts.TALLAHASSEE -- Governor Rick Scott signed today Executive Order 11-63, creating the Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts, which will consider whether government-run hospitals are in the best interest of taxpayers and recommend a cost-effective and efficient model for providing Florida with a health-care safety net.
The Commission's focus will be to identify efficient models for how government-run hospitals are:
* Providing access to care for the broadest population.
* Compensating physicians.
* Ensuring predictable costs to taxpayers.
The Commission will also review sale or lease proposals of public hospitals to ensure taxpayers get the best return for their investment and that the competitive process is fair. Its findings are expected to be reported back to the governor next year.
"I am confident this new Commission will protect Florida taxpayers," Governor Scott said in a written statement released by his press office Thursday afternoon. "At the same time, the Commission's guidance will help provide Floridians a high-quality health care system."
Brian Hughes, deputy communications director for Gov. Scott said the executive order creating the commission is "not in response to any single hospital." "It is part of a comprehensive policy to protect Florida's taxpayers while also protecting the taxpayer-funded health care safety net," Hughes said.
Still, New Smyrna Beach resident Bob Tolley was pleased to hear about the governor's new commission. "That's outstanding," Said Tolley, a critic of the way the merger was handled by the administrators of the Southeast Volusia Hospital Authority, in particular, former CEO Bob Williams and attorney Jim Heekin. "All they did was screw with the taxpayers' money," Tolley said. "They can find a way to do what they need to do without the taxpayer."
Bert Fish Medical Center in New Smyrna Beach is one of six Volusia County hospitals to receive indigent care funding through taxing districts. Bert Fish's indigent care monies are collected by the Southeast Volusia Hospital Board. The largest in the county is Halifax Health Systems, in Daytona Beach, which provides indigent care funding at Halifax Medical Center. The others are Florida Hospital-DeLand and Florida Hospital - Orange City.
There are 16 hospital districts statewide of which Southeast Volusia's has the highest tax rate.
The privately-managed Adventist merged with publicly-operated Bert Fish in May 2010, but last month Circuit Judge Richard Graham threw out the merger because of Sunshine Law violations. The judge said Williams and Heekin benefited personally by steering the Southeast Volusia hospital authority into going with the Adventist through 16 closed-door meetings over a 20-month period.
Williams got a $1 million-plus severance as a result of the merger while Heekin acknowledged during a trial brought by the Bert Fish Foundation that led to Graham's ruling that he was negligent in is counsel to the Southeast Volusia hospital board.
At a March 16 meeting, the hospital board voted unanimously not to appeal the judge's verdict.
Click the links to read about the lawsuit merger verdict:
http://nsbnews.net/content/405567-judge-rules-bert-fish-hospital-merger-adventists-invalid