Gang of 5 Blind Mice do it again | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

Mother Goose had her three blind mice. Beaufort County has its Five Blind Mice.

    Beaufort County continues to suffer from the Blind Mice making up the Gang of Five on our County Commission. At their April meeting they approved a contract they have never seen and obviously did not know with whom they were contracting. But worse still they voted 2-5 against asking their attorney to review it.

    We'll give you the short version first but urge you to get involved in learning about this issue. The issue itself can be monumentally important to the tax payers of Beaufort County but beyond the immediate it represents another prime example of what Commissioner Hood Richardson keeps saying is the "lack of oversight" by the Board of Commissioners. What's going on here is that the Board of Commissioners approved a contract between Access East, Inc. fbo Community Care Plan of Easter Carolina and the Beaufort County Health Department (BCHD). The contract was signed by Joel K. Butler for Access East and Roxanne Holloman, the Public Health Director, for Beaufort County. The Gang of Five Blind Mice approved it after the fact without ever seeing the contract before they voted on it.

    The deal is that Access East will provide funds for BCHD to administer two programs, Public Health Pregnancy Care Management and Care Coordination for Children, to eligible residents of Beaufort County (and possibly other counties).

    At their March meeting the Board of Commissioners retroactively approved the contract after Commissioner Richardson earlier challenged the legality of the Director of Public Health having the authority to sign the contract without explicit approval of the Board of Health and/or the Board of Commissioners. After that challenge the response of the Board of Heath was to approve the contract after the fact. In March the Gang of Five also approved the contract after the fact.

    But the action by the Commissioners was based on an explanation to the board by Commissioner Robert Cayton, who is the Commissioners' representative on the Board of Health, that said that this was a routine contract with "the State." Richardson challenged that at the time and told the Board that the contract was with Access East, and indicated that his research showed that Access East was associated with Vidant/University Health Systems.

    So at the April meeting Commissioner Al Klemm read a letter addressed to the County Manager from Vidant CEO Dave McRae in which he says that Access East, Inc. "...is not a subsidiary or an affiliate of Vidant Health system."

    After Klemm read the letter, Richardson revealed there is a close association between Access East and Vidant. You can get the details of that in the video.



    Richardson then made a motion that the contract be reviewed by the County's lawyers. He specifically mentions two issues. One is the STARK law and the other is the simultaneous negotiations that took place in August, 2011 as the Hospital Authority was negotiating with University Health Systems/Vidant to take over the hospital while at the same time the Hospital Authority had been negotiating with the BCHD for a contract between BCHD and Beaufort Hospital to provide pregnancy/child care services. Richardson interpreted the date on the Access East contract (September 1, 2011) to be indicative of simultaneous negotiations between Holloman and Access East while Vidant was in negotiation to take over the Hospital. He stated that as a member of the Hospital Authority that he never heard any disclosure by UHS that Access East was negotiating with BCHD. So that was one legal issue he wanted a legal opinion on.

    The second, and potentially much more serious issue was whether the Access East contract has any implication for Beaufort County, as the corporate entity of the BCHD, with regard to the STARK law.

    The STARK law is a federal statute that imposes stringent regulations to prevent conflicts of interests among various health care providers that are funded by Medicare and Medicaid. The STARK law is complex, but one of the things it deals with is the relationship between those participants who refer patients to service providers and facilities who are paid by Medicare and Medicaid. Oversimplified, it is a potential conflict of interest for one entity to refer patients to someone from whom they receive compensation as a result of the referral.

    So the issue that caught Richardson's eye was whether the contract between Access East and BCHD has STARK implications. Thus, he wanted it reviewed by a health care attorney based on fair disclosure of the parties and the deals encompassed in the contract.

    In a brief interview with the Observer Richardson said: "I don't know whether or not the contract between our Health Department on behalf of Beaufort County and Access East is a violation of the STARK laws and regulations. I also don't know if there was any fraud involved in the way the contract was negotiated. What I do know is that the Board of County Commissioners did not consider either of those issues and as one of those commissioners I don't think I have had adequate informed advice (from a health care attorney) to vet the contract. My motion was to get a ruling from our attorney and to get answers to any questions any commissioner might have."

    The Gang of Five voted against getting legal advice on the contract.

    This is the first in a series of articles on this issue. Rest assured that we will have more in the way of commentary on it later.

    But if you want to get a glimpse of what could be involved...in terms of fraud and the STARK law, a recent decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is instructive. Click here to review the case of U.S. v. Tuomey Healthcare System.

    Commentary

    We will offer this by way of commentary at this point. We find it astounding that the Gang of Five on the Board of Commissioners would have just been through negotiations to lease the hospital to UHS/Vidant and see the cash proceeds of that lease (some $6 million) tied up in an escrow account because of legal liabilities and then not have enough concern about the Access East contract to even have it reviewed by their attorney. That is beyond belief, had we not seen and heard it with our own eyes and ears.

    To think that this board majority would vote to approve a contract they had not even read is bad enough. But to approve it without getting their attorney to review it is beyond belief. We, like Mr. Richardson, do not know whether fraud or violations of STARK laws are involved. But neither do those who voted for the contract. If there are bad implications here they should know that before they vote. Like so many other times in recent months, they simply blundered along without doing due diligence. The People of Beaufort County deserve better...or these people need to personally cover the liability, not the taxpayers.

    The major issues here are whether the Health Director fully and honestly disclosed her negotiations with UHS and whether this contract subjects Beaufort County to liability under Federal law. Not one of these commissioners knows that, nor have they sought to be informed about the legal ramifications. Hopefully there are none. But the point is they don't know whether there are or not. They didn't even know who they were contracting with.

    Finally, we would suggest Mr. McRae has some explaining to do. His letter of March 27 raises more questions than it answers. We think, in light of the fact that he chose to inject himself in this issue, he owes it to the People of Beaufort County to answer Mr. Richardson's questions and explain what he meant by saying Access East, Inc. is not a subsidiary or an affiliate of Vidant Health, when they have the same address, he is the registered agent for both corporations, apparently appoints its members and Vidant is the successor of the assets of Access East. That sounds to us like something very different from the picture conveyed by his March 27 letter. And while he is explaining, we think he should explain why Mr. Baluss failed to respond to the Observer's questions and public records requests about Access East and this contract.
Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




The Gang of Five, who wasted $20 million on school facilites, continues the Blind Mice game County Commissioners, Government, Governing Beaufort County Why is Beaufort County a Tier 1 county? This article will tell you if you read to the very end.

HbAD0

 
Back to Top