And just when Ken thought it couldn't get any worse...
Not only has the financial rating giant Moody's given DMH a NEGATIVE outlook, now it appears that DMH's financial woes are only just beginning. In the Springfield Journal Register earlier this week (8-17-2011), it was reported that DMH is one of only three hospitals in the entire state to lose their tax-exempt status!
For years, Ken has been paying his doctors, his fellow administrators, and himself exorbitant salaries (did someone say, cooking the books?) and pushing DMH toward financial ruin. Then when Moody's catches him at it he decides to try to stem the flow of cardiology money from Prairie to his own doctors by kicking Prairie Cardiovascular off DMH's campus. Of course, Ken didn't plan on 85% of Decatur patients *PREFERRING* the nationally recognized experts of Prairie Cardiovascular (and therefore St. Mary's/St. John's/Memorial Medical Center) over his group and all their 'issues.' Now, all the potential hospitalization dollars, lab dollars, outpatient dollars, radiology dollars that Prairie was bringing in to DMH--are now ALL going to other hospitals, thus meaning even further lost revenue. And now for the icing on the cake: the state of Illinois has revoked DMH's tax-exempt status, meaning Ken's expenses just went up another $1.5 million per year.
Meanwhile, how much money has been wasted in all those new buildings that Ken has been building all over the city? How much more has he put DMH on the string, increasing overall expenses while attempting to portray DMH as the 'Mayo of the Midwest.' It's no wonder why more patients are leaving DMH's PAthetic care for St. Mary's: even more money lost (huge expenses in building and/or renting more property + fewer paying visits (Illinois public aid doesn't pay all that much, Ken, especially to those who have lost their tax-exempt status!)
Funny, isn't it, that Ken's salary was about the same last tax cycle as what the new tax bill is going to be? I think the DMH board has a clear course to take: FIRE KEN SMITHMIER BEFORE THE HOSPITAL IS FORCED TO DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!!!!
posted by Watcher2300 at 8/21/2011 05:13:00 PM
5 Comments:
The guy just doesn't get it...
He has meetings scheduled with all employees Sept 6...Wonder what kind of spin he will put on all this news?
It will be a positive spin...I've been at his mandatory meetings and according to him DMH never does anything wrong...
If he is not on meds for mania he needs them desperately.
Sept 7th - this blog explodes! Why don't you do an expose on how Ken had a midlife crisis and built a gym for himself to work out in at DMH expense?
Is this not clear and convincing evidence of mis-management?
What is the solution?
Does Ken use the gym as a makeshift salon?
How long before it takes two coats to cover the grey?
Illinois hospitals got their first major warning about losing charitable tax exemptions when the state Department of Revenue first removed Provena Covenant Medical Center's exemption in 2006, then yanked Carle Foundation Hospital's exemption.
Last year, after the state Supreme Court ultimately found Provena Covenant was taxable, the Department of Revenue began looking at a stack of applications from other hospitals in Illinois seeking tax exemptions.
In August, the department preliminarily denied exemptions for three more hospitals, in Chicago, Naperville and Decatur.
Illinois Hospital Association President Maryjane Wurth says her organization has been trying to work out a solution with the Department of Revenue, Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office and others with a stake in the charity care issue.
The hospital organization has asked the department both to withdraw its latest three hospital exemption denials and to hold off on further decisions for now, but Department of Revenue spokeswoman Sue Hofer says more preliminary decisions may be forthcoming.
"Clearly it is time for a global solution for this issue," Wurth says.
What's enough
During the year deciding the Provena Covenant tax exemption case, tax year 2002, the Urbana Catholic hospital provided free care to needy patients that equaled less than 1 percent of its revenues.
In its most recent full fiscal year, Covenant provided free care worth 3.2 percent of its annual revenues, hospital officials said. The numbers reflect free care at what it cost the hospital to provide it, not the higher figures patients would have been charged had they been billed.
The latest three hospitals to lose their exemptions — all deemed by the Department of Revenue to have acted more like businesses than charities — gave away less than 2 percent of their revenues in free care, and one of them, Decatur Memorial Hospital, provided less than 1 percent.
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