Kerwin Johnson
October 13, 2015
Charity or Subsidy?
At the last League of Women Voter’s Forum, candidate Bill Hancock made the statement that some very smart people put the contract together between Peace Island Medical Center and the San Juan Public Hospital District regarding the use of our tax monies for “Charitable” purposes.
While some might call their actions “smart”, others might call them questionable.
The Public Hospital District turned over 97% of the taxes collected, over a 50 year period, to Peace Health in this agreement to be used for what has been called “charitable purposes” by Mr. Jim Barnhart, the CFO of Peace Health as well as the Public Hospital District. These are our tax dollars folks so the statement that no taxes were used to build the new hospital is not true as some $80 million in tax dollars were used to entice Peace Health to build its facility on the island.
Now back to charity or subsidy. According to the most recent financial statement presented to the Public Hospital District from Peace Health through June of 2015, the year to date subsidies (read my lips, our tax dollars) that had accrued were $769,387.00. Of those funds $188,199 was used to subsidize Medicare payments, $385,951 was used to subsidize Medicaid payments, $292,305 was used to subsidize commercial and other payers (think Regence), $36,408 was written off as bad debt, and $37,176 was written off as charity. As you can see, less than 10% of the funds were actually used for what I would call “charitable” purposes. The remaining 90% was used to subsidize the operations of Peace Island Medical Center, going directly to their coffers without question. If they wanted to they could purchase toilet paper with the funds that were handed over – but – charity sounds so much better.
No other providers on the island have such a subsidy in order to make up their shortfalls from payments, which are agreed upon amounts by contract, from insurance carriers, Medicare, or Medicaid.
What is happening is perfectly legal per the terms and conditions of the contract. But there’s a difference between what is legally or contractually okay sometimes and what is morally right – especially when claims about charity care are not being supported by evidence.
We have three folks running for Public Hospital District Commissioner’s that do not believe everything is “just fine” and will work and converse with Peace Health to try and amend these agreements. We have three candidates who think things are just fine and will continue to say the contract is “untouchable”.
This is why I am supporting Barbara Sharp, Bill Williams, and Monica Harrington for Public Hospital District Commissioners. We do need more transparency. We need commissioners that will work for the citizens of the San Juan Public Hospital District and not Peace Health. We need commissioners who want to expand medical services within the Public Hospital District.
Kerwin Johnson