Happy New Year Vidant!!! | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Oct. 1, 2014 is the first day of Vidant's fiscal year and they are already on a roll.

    2013-2014 was the year for mergers, joint ventures and acquisitions, but not for Vidant. UNC Health Care snatched up Nash Health and Johnston Health; Sentara Health took over Albemarle Medical Center; Duke LifePoint Health joined with Wilson Medical Center.

    Whatever history Vidant had with Albemarle was played out in The Daily Advance news coverage and at Pasquotank County public meetings. Vidant lost that bid even though Albemarle had operated under a management contract with Vidant for the past few years.

    The search for the right partner continues for Lenoir Memorial Hospital and Onslow Memorial Hospital as they go through the arduous vetting process of narrowing the field. Vidant has been actively pursuing any and all Requests for Proposals that come their way - without success.

    In mid-September WITN reported that Vidant had dropped out of the Lenoir Memorial Hospital bidding process in back in July. Lenoir Memorial asked Vidant to alter their proposal, something Vidant wasn't willing to do. Exactly what Lenoir Memorial asked of Vidant is locked away in the usual confidentiality agreement.

    For the last 6 months Onslow Memorial Hospital has been conducting a search for the right health system to partner with. Vidant is one of the health systems responding to the Request for Proposal.

    On September 19 The Jacksonville Daily News reported that Vidant Medical Center President Steve Lawler and Vidant Duplin Hospital President Jay Briley attended a luncheon sponsored by the Jacksonville Rotary Club and shared their vision for Onslow Memorial Hospital. And what a vision it was!!!

    In addition to proposing to make Onslow Memorial Hospital a regional hub and anchor for Vidant Health, Vidant has plans to transform Onslow Memorial into a teaching hospital. This was a calculated and unusual move for Vidant to openly discuss details usually restricted to closed door negotiations. Has this revelation put other bidders at a disadvantage? Could this be a game changer? Or is this grandstanding just a sign of desperation?

    Realistically, is this transformation even possible without extensive meetings and negotiations with all the entities involved such as the UNC Board of Governors, East Carolina University, ECU Physicians, Brody School of Medicine, Pitt County Board of Commissioners, DHHS Certificate of Need office, State Legislative Oversight Committees, just to name a few.

    The ongoing NC NAACP civil rights lawsuit filed against Vidant in Jan. of this year is another example of how Vidant operates. Without communicating or planning with the community at large, the Beaufort County Commissioners, the Mayor of Belhaven or representatives of minorities and the elderly, Vidant decided to close Pungo District Hospital.

    That was considered a death sentence to more than one aspect of this small community. Pungo Hospital serviced over 20,000 people within the scope of 4 counties. This area is made up of some of the poorest Tier One Counties that have no public transportation and very few medical facilities. And now, Vidant was shutting down the main economic engine for Belhaven.

    In April after days of negotiation under the oversight of a Dept. Of Justice Community Relations mediator, the NC NAACP, Mayor of Belhaven and Vidant Health finally signed a mediation agreement to keep Pungo Hospital open until July 1, 2014. This new deadline would give the Town of Belhaven time to form a hospital community board and explore their options.

    It didn't take long before Vidant started manipulating, massaging and spinning the terms to their benefit. Frustration set in as one delay after another restricted the NC NAACP and the Town of Belhaven from going forward; then on July 1st, just like they promised, Vidant padlocked the hospital entrances and put up a sign that said if you have an emergency – CALL 911.

    Since closing Pungo, Vidant has come under investigation by the US Dept. of Justice and US Dept. of Health & Human Services. The NC NAACP civil rights law suit continues and is now in Federal Court at the request of Vidant Health. Obviously, things were not going well for Vidant at the first hearing in State Superior Court.

    The next announcement was made by 3 major health care providers: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, WakeMed Health and Vidant Health are partnering to form a shared services company hoping to provide enhanced access and quality, affordable health care to patients and consumers.

    The new company will not include a merger or acquisitions of organizations, but is expected to expand and invite other like-minded health care organizations to join in. New member institutions would have opportunities, such as supply chain-management, select IT infrastructure and clinical protocols available to them.

    After a year of meetings and negotiations the 3 health care systems have accomplished only one thing, they approved moving forward to create the company. No Articles of Incorporation have been drawn up or filed, no designation of where the company will be headquartered, no company name has been selected and whose ego is going to suffer the most are the hurdles commonly faced by companies with top-heavy, overpaid chief executives.

    "Coastal Plains Network" was a company name suggested by a source involved with Vidant. That name might appeal to Greenville based Vidant, but neither of its partners are headquartered anywhere near the coast.

    After researching the background on the subjects in this article, I am not surprised by the very unusual and telling request by the Joint Legislative Oversight Committees on HHS (Health and Human Services) and Education. When our legislators deal with budgetary concerns, it is essential they have dependable, quality and accurate financial data. If the legislators had been satisfied with the data presented by University of North Carolina System, East Carolina University and Vidant Health, the legislators would not have singled them out in the following Sections in Senate Bill 744.

    The information requested in Sec. 11.20 includes detailed explanations of sources of all income, in both current and historical context, changes in funding sources and amounts over time, detailed explanations of operating expenses so they may be compared to income. This Report was due Oct. 1, 2014.

    Sections 12H.13.(a) and 12H.13.(b) require Annual Reports containing detailed information for each individual provider who receives supplemental Medicaid payments. The required data includes:

    1. Location of service, including county, municipality and zip code

    2. Percentage of provider's time spent servicing Medicaid recipients at locations other than ECU Brody School of Medicine, Firetower Medical Office, or the UNC School of Medicine. That leaves just Vidant medical facilities to be held accountable.

    3. Medicaid reimbursement amount.

    4. On an annual basis, percentage of provider's time spent in each of the following: Clinical patient care, Teaching, Research, other activities.

    Section 12H.13A - Effective July 1, 2014, UNC Hospitals' and Vidant Medical Center's cost settlement amounts for outpatient Medicaid services were reduced from 100% to 70%.

    On Oct. 1st of this year, Vidant began facing even more serious Medicare penalties. Citing 2012 data the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) reported Vidant Medical Center and Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital are expected to receive a one percent penalty on all Medicare reimbursements. The two hospitals were in the top 750 hospitals nationwide that had a high rating for Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI).

    The above information was reported by Kaiser Health News in June, but local print media did not publish the article, probably because Vidant did not receive any favorable ratings. Selective reporting is usually a sure sign of financial dependence on the part of the media. On the other hand Kinston Free Press reported not only the story, but interviewed the featured Vidant patient, who now promotes Vidant as a patient advocate.

    While all of this is going on, seasoned Vidant executives/officers are jumping ship cashing in their chips, a million here, two million there. The exodus began when former Vidant CEO Dave McRae left in 2012 and took his $7 million in deferred compensation.

    Many are Vidant Medical Center President Steve Lawler announced his retirement and was promptly replaced by Brian Floyd. Lawler will stay on for awhile to help Floyd transition.

    Recently On Oct. 1st Vidant Health CEO David C. Herman resigned. He's returning to Minnesota to be with family. Who knew he was so family oriented, considering how he treated over 300 citizens who gathered in Belhaven on September 24, 2013 to oppose Vidant's decision to close down Pungo Hospital. Pumped up with arrogance and an obvious lack of concern for the issues the audience wanted discussed, Herman told the crowd:

    There will be no blood bank available at the new clinic – It's like being treated on the battlefield.

    There are no plans to have any specialized equipment or drugs to diagnose or treat heart attacks or strokes.

    One of the most egregious and bizarre statements by Herman was when he compared that extra 30plus minutes it would take for a stroke/heart attack victim to reach the Beaufort Hospital ER to how his father had to travel 100 miles to get him to a sports venue.

    NO ONE WHO ATTENDED THAT SEPT. 24TH MEETING WILL EVER FORGET THE HARSH STATEMENTS HERMAN PUT FORTH.

    Anyone familiar with the circumstances surrounding Pungo Hospital can't help but believe that Vidant had every intention of closing Pungo when they bought it in late 2011. Closing Pungo Hospital provided Vidant a way to funnel Hyde and Beaufort County patients to beef up the patient caseload at Vidant Beaufort Hospital.

    So, OCT. 1st has come and gone. A new fiscal year begins for Vidant with opportunities to meet expectations of financial transparency, better communications and improved cooperation with the communities they serve.
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