CaliforniaKid wrote:'Millions of dollars of public assets were transferred to the MGH shell corporation in 1985. Probably the comment of a county supervisor at the time, Gary Giacomini, was the most memorable about the event: "The biggest theft of public property in Marin's history."'
http://www.pacificsun.com/square/index.php?I=3&d=&t=358
You know, I wonder whether the LDS Church accepted tithes and offerings from millions of dollars that were diverted from this public hospital to an account in the Cayman islands. Do you think he paid tithing on this 'increase'?
By the way, to clear up the point about legality somewhat:
Siphoning money from a non-profit to a for-profit entity is legal. Marin General, a hospital owned by residents of the Marin Healthcare District (all of Marin except Novato), has been a victim of that since its 1985 privatization. Siphoned money is patient revenue diverted from patient care. For years privatized Marin General had diverted millions of dollars, but that role has now been assumed by Sutter Health.
But:
Buhrmann and Cook were then public employees. It is violation of California Government Code, Section 1090, for a public employee to make contracts that benefit himself. Both Buhrmann and Cook left public employment to join the private Marin General Hospital Corp. The lease, therefore, is illegal. Buhrmann and cook graciously supplied all the necessary evidence to make the district board's case solid.
See? Clear as mud.
See:
http://www.coastalpost.com/98/2/7.htmMore interesting tidbits:
In contract Gary Giacomini, then a county supervisor, called it "the biggest theft of public property in Marin's history."
See:
http://www.coastalpost.com/04/08/25.htmOn the effectiveness of the privatization:
Marin General Hospital is a case in point. Marin General was sold to CHS in 1985. It is now $46 million in debt.
According to Doctor Norman Carigg, who has been with the hospital for 36 years, "the quality of patient care is at its nadir now. Part of the blame can be placed upon managed care," but Carigg places the rest of the blame on CHS, which he says has siphoned millions of dollars to its San Francisco offices.
See:
http://www.albionmonitor.com/community/ch-marin.htmlPerhaps the most interesting, or at least clear, of all:
Marin General Chief Executive Officer Henry Buhrmann and Charles Mason, former head of Mills-Peninsula, each led his respective hospital district into a privatization deal. Each subsequently became the top executive of the nonprofit that leased the formerly public hospital.
Quentin Cook -- an attorney formerly with the San Francisco law firm of Carr, McClellan, Ingersoll, Thompson & Horn -- represented the districts in both deals. Cook became the attorney for the nonprofit health care organizations created in those deals to lease the once-public hospitals.
In their lawsuits, the districts allege that Cook and the CEOs violated a conflict-of-interest law preventing government employees from participating in transactions in which they stand to gain from the outcome. Therefore, they argue that the 1985 hospital leases, which are still in place, are invalid.
Both districts allege that those leases heavily favor the nonprofits -- now part of Sutter -- leaving the public with little say in health care issues and virtually no income from the hospitals. "There's a mission that district hospitals have, and there's a mission that nonprofits have, and they are not the same," says Marin Health Care District Board Member Linda Remy. "District hospitals are the only form of organization for hospitals where the mission is to serve everyone in the community."
See:
http://www.sfweekly.com/1998-01-21/news/sutter-s-empire-strikes-back/