The timeliness of Tuesday’s observation about holding our public officials accountable has come into play less than 24 hours after the post went up.
Today’s (March30) Baton Rouge Advocate revealed that only two of Bobby Jindal’s nine public-private partnership hospital contracts will be funded in the next fiscal year, a move that is certain to adversely affect low-income residents seeking medical care. http://theadvocate.com/news/15333761-70/seven-out-nine-public-hospitals-unfunded-in-next-years-budget-including-baton-rouge-and-lafayette
As severe as the projected cuts are ($58.4 million to Our Lady of the Lake Medical Center in Baton Rouge and $51.2 million to Lafayette General Health Center alone), Gov. John Bel Edwards appointee Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Dr. Rebekah Gee has been AWOL at hearings before the House Appropriations Committee and the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget.
The latest crisis is, of course, directly attributable to the short-sightedness of Bobby Jindal and his obsession with privatizing everything in state government that moved—even to the extent of having his lap dog LSU Board of Supervisors approve a contract turning over medical facilities in Shreveport and Monroe to private concerns which contained 50 blank pages.
As things now stand, it appears the only hospitals to be spared the knife (if you will pardon a terrible pun) are the LSU Medical Centers in New Orleans and Shreveport and they survived only because they house LSU medical schools.
The fiscal year 2017 budget calls for a 10 percent funding cut for DHH. That comes to $283 million right off the top but the number escalates to $750 million when the loss of federal matching funds are factored into the equation.
Besides OLOL in Baton Rouge and Lafayette General, other public-private hospitals impacted by the cuts include those in Alexandria, Monroe, Houma, Bogalusa and Lake Charles.
LSU Health Sciences Center Chancellor Dr. Larry Hollier testified that he was worried about the prospect of seeing the public-private arrangements go belly up. OLOL, he said, has 150 residents in training and Lafayette has 82. In all, LSU has about 800 residents scattered about the state.
State Rep. Ted James (D-Baton Rouge) noted that residents of north Baton Rouge, a predominantly black area, have lost both inner community hospitals when Earl K. Long was closed and later torn down and when Baton Rouge General-Mid City closed down its emergency room a year ago Thursday (March 31).
So with all this bad news swirling about, where was the DHH secretary?
Sure, DHH Undersecretary Jeff Reynolds testified but was unable to give clear cut answers to legislators’ questions about how funds saved from Medicaid expansion might be used to offset the DHH shortfall.
But Gee was still MIA. Reynolds said she was absent because of personal issues but that lame excuse was quickly shot down by DHH spokesperson Bob Johannessen told LSU’s Manship School News Service that Gee was spending spring break with her family.
Johannessen’s candor could get him in hot water. The boss never likes it when a subordinate reveals something that puts him or her in a bad light. And face it, this is a pretty bad light. He did recover some lost ground, however, when he added that legislators who were critical of her absence were “grandstanding.”
Well, yeah. That’s what politicians do. So why make it so easy for them?
Rep. Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville) said he doesn’t recall seeing Gee at any Appropriations Committee or Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget meetings.
Rep. John Schroder (R-Covington) was even more critical. “It’s getting a little troublesome that the secretary doesn’t come,” he said. “The taxpayers want to hear from the boss when we start talking about these kinds of dollars.” http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/local/2016/03/29/millions-dollars-cut-state-hospitals/82402336/
Spring break? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? (the new polite way of saying WTF?)
Edwards appointed Gee, a professor of health policy and management in obstetrics and gynecology at LSU, to head DHH in early January. http://new.dhh.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/page/7/n/55
We just had a DHH secretary (Kathy Kliebert) whose brother-in-law got into hot water with the Louisiana Board of Ethics (does anyone have any idea how difficult that is to do after Jindal revamped the ethics board in 2008?) because he failed to disclose his employment by state Medicaid contractor Magellan Health Services. http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/11707352-123/brother-in-law-of-state-health-secretary
We just got rid of a governor who for eight years steadfastly refused to be held accountable for his action (or inaction, as the case may be).
Her appointment was described as “among the most important appointments Edwards will make in his new administration” by NOLA.com back in January.
At the time of the announcement of her appointment, she said, “I pledge to you I will use all of the skills I’ve used as a physician, a patient, a parent, and a policymaker to do everything I can to improve the lives and health of people in this great state.”
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/01/john_bel_edwards_dhh_secretary.html
Dr. Gee, those noble words might mean a little more to the taxpayers of this state if you would take your position more seriously and appear at important committee hearings. A public face on an agency in crisis mode is more than important: it’s critical.
It’s all about accountability.
We’ve already had one agency head (Kristy Nichols) to duck out on a committee hearing to attend a boy band concert in New Orleans. We don’t need an encore of that performance. https://louisianavoice.com/2014/10/06/kristy-kreme-knows-one-direction-ducks-out-on-legislative-committee-for-boy-band-concert-at-n-o-smoothie-king-arena/
Going on spring break at a time when the low-income residents of this state are staring at having to overcome even greater hurdles to obtain decent health care sends the wrong message—a message that we’ve become all too familiar with over the past eight years.
And that message is arrogance.
Louisiana Voice 
Why should Dr. Gee attend legislative Committee Hearings? Legislators don’t listen to the testimony being given. Legislators act like children when a substitute teacher is conducting class in the regular teacher’s absence. They are rude to a fault and don’t deserve respect. Legislators fiddle around and know that the only information that they want or need to know is what their Lobbyist “handlers” tell them and how to vote on bills. In the Louisiana Legislature, Committees, like the members thereof, are a joke and a sham.
Certainly doesn’t make a good impression.
Considering the hardship, that the closing, and potential closings of HC facilities are having on our lower income families, I would find this dereliction of duty.. she should be front and center, at all meetings, and prepared to answer all questions… I see a trend, so many have a growing disregard for the poor, and she may be one of them….
Surely agree that her presence would not have made much of a difference but she surely should have been there to answer questions, etc. And I am sure her leave will not be questioned. They have access to special circumstances and loop holes. All other state employees have to dot their eyes and cross their T’s. I retired from DHH and I am very disappointed that nothing has changed. I compare this sort of thing to the classroom teachers. The higher you go, the more money you make and the less accountable you have to be. Too bad everyone does not have to have their priorities in the right place. Although, her family should come first, I agree, but she knew what her job was about when she took on this responsibility. Evidently she knew that her presence was not important or needed and she gets paid all the same. I wonder who does her evaluations??????? Oh, I forgot, she was appointed……..
Taking the position of DHH Secretary is a monumental decision! You are asked to put your life on hold for the good of the state, the agency, healthcare systems statewide, and communities that use them. To think legislators have the knowledge and experience to really understand what it takes to run a healthcare system at any of these levels is totally absurd. Find me one who doesn’t fall in love every morning when they look in the mirror each morning!
She is a physician; her life is no more “on hold” now than before. And while I agree with your assessment of most legislators’ vanity, the truth remains she should have been at the hearings. She is the face of DHH now and it is her responsibility to answer questions. That point is inescapable. You seem to take the position that we are never to ask questions of appointees; let ’em run their fiefdoms and don’t challenge them. Let Kristy Nichols run DOA as the state sinks deeper into debt, allow Mike Edmonson to demoralize State Police, let Burl Cain conduct business with the families of convicts, appoint political cronies like Noble Ellington to high-paying positions in the Department of Insurance but don’t dare ask questions.
What could possibly go wrong?
I agree it looks bad, however there may be extenuating circumstances regarding Dr. Gee’s “vacation” that are personal and will not ever be publicly shared. Regarding the use of vacation days, I do know that Dr. Gee would be able to use accrued leave she earned over the past several years while working at LSU.
Regardless of leave time she had so what as I remember hurricanes are pretty important and as a former employee of DSS and DHH (retired from both) we all were expected to cancel plans or your own or any family member’s illness, There was NO EXCUSE that wold be accepted and subject to termination if you did not show up to work your 12 hour shift during and after the storm. Surely as secretary of the biggest and most important state department her attendance was needed if not required. I know Jeff Reynolds and he is great at crunching numbers but if I read correctly did not do a great job with general questions.