Here is the logic of the Mississippi legislature:
Tuesday, the House Public Health Committee admitted that county-owned hospitals should be held to the same open meeting laws that govern other taxpayer-funded entities.
“This is wrong!” the committee said. “Obviously, this is something we have to pretend to fix!”
By the end of the day, the committee – which includes Jeff Smith of Columbus – amended a bill passed through the Senate by a 52-0 vote that is tough as nails.
It says, basically, “Listen up, you county-owned hospitals. We expect you to conduct public business in the open. So from now on, every county-owned hospital located in Jackson County will be required to abide by the terms and conditions of the Open Meetings Act.
“As for the rest of you, you are free to do as you please without being bothered by those annoying taxpayers — you know, those people that pay your salaries, provide your facilities and are directly affected by the decisions you make.”
See how easy that was?
The original bill was a response to a disturbing scandal that unfolded with the Jackson County-owned Singing River Hospital System, which operates hospitals in Ocean Springs and Pascagoula. SRHS stopped contributing to the pension plan in 2009, though employees received statements indicating the pension plan was still in place. They kept deducting 3 percent from employee paychecks until November 2014, when the hospital system’s trustees voted to terminate the plan.
If county-owned hospitals had been required to conduct its business in open meetings, there is little chance that the hospital would have been able to conceal its handing of the employee pension plan for five years.
That the full senate voted for the bill in its unaltered form tells you how perfectly sensible it is to hold these hospitals accountable to the public. The original version is much like the laws that govern hospitals in Arkansas and Tennessee. Alabama is also considering similar legislation. The matter is of local relevance, too: Oktibbeha County Hospital Regional Medical Center in Starkville is owned by the county.
Instead of making all county-owned hospitals comply with Open Meeting Act regulations, something else happened upon the bill’s arrival in the House: Lobbying.
Speaker Phillip Gunn and the House members who do his bidding seem far more concerned with placating the hospital lobby than serving the interests of the taxpayers.
The House’s efforts to limit public oversight to Jackson County is minimize the outrage, not solve the problem. Gunn and his House lackeys would have you believe these sorts of abuses are isolated.
But as The Biloxi Sun Herald revealed, there have been other abuses in recent years. In Natchez, the county-owned hospital twice filed for bankruptcy in a five-year period without public knowledge. In Neshoba County, county supervisors had to pass a motion to force the county hospital to release an engineering report it sought to keep secret.
If anything, what happened at Singing River Hospital is a disturbing example of why it is important that every taxpayer- funded hospital in the state be held to regulations of the Open Meetings Act.
Although the bill has no been watered down to the point of being meaningless anywhere outside of Jackson County, there remains the possibility that the bill can be returned to its original form.
But it will take pressure from the people to make that happen. Otherwise, the Legislature will continue to do the hospital lobby’s bidding.
We urge you to contact you state legislators and let them know you expect them to vote against the hospital lobby and for the peoples’ right to know how their hospitals are conducting their tax-payer owned businesses.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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