Redstate

By Erick Posted in Culture — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

It's important to note that this is not really a partisan issue. Why then am I putting it up at RedState? Well, in all the discussions about healthcare in America, we can get a strong sense of liberal entitlement in the medical industry. It's not the entitlement you think of generally, but it is entitlement nonetheless — liberals in academia believe they can do things for the greater societal good, even if it means running roughshod over others. It is, after all, for the greater good. And when you combine liberal academics and liberal healthcare providers, taxpayers, the unborn, the infirmed, and everyone else better watch out. It was, after all, the progressives who gave us eugenics and forced sterilization for the greater good

Down in Georgia, the fine folks in the Atlanta area are waking up to the fact that Grady Hospital, both a trauma center (one of the few in Georgia) and the hospital for treatment of mostly indigent patients, is about to go under through reckless mismanagement and bad deals. As legislators and the media have dug deeper, they've discovered a parasitic relationship between Emory University and Grady Hospital. Emory, which prides itself on being an elite liberal ivy league of its own in the south, has been feed off Grady to train Emory's doctors. While Emory's doctors have been getting their training, Emory has been billing Grady a/k/a the taxpayers, for those same doctors services. In essence, Emory is getting money from the medical students for training and also from the taxpayers to train the same students by letting them practice on indigent patients at Grady.

When we get to the bottom of the Grady mess, it seems to me that we're going to have to get to the bottom of the Emory mess. I have always, perhaps unfairly, thought that a lot of the Emory folks walk around with a sense of entitlement due to inordinate self perceived superiority. The Grady mess seems to play into that. It's as if the Emory folks took the view that they were entitled to live off Grady because, well, they are Emory and Emory works for a greater good that the hoi polloi just might not understand.

Now we've got a series of troubling stories out of Emory that should, regardless of our politics, give us cause for discomfort.

Read on . . .

First, we learn aboutan Emory student newspaper student editor who called into question Emory's conduct in the Grady Hospital affair. He was, to be sure, quite critical of Emory. But then Emory University granted him, very soon after the article appeared, an internship with Emory Healthcare. All of a sudden the considered his prior views to be those of folks having a “witch hunt.”

Then we have Georgia State Representative Melvin Everson's letter to Emory in which he asks a series of questions about Emory apparently running an abortion clinic at Grady using tax dollars. The text of his letter is below the fold.

To be sure, you and I can disagree on abortion and I don't much care. But whether or not we disagree on the procedure, we both must recognize that federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions except in the cases of rape, incest, and life threatening conditions. It appears that, prior to Emory shutting down its clinic, it used the facility to train doctors in abortions and did not set limits on the abortions it performed (this last bit is still speculation, but it looks like we're headed that way).

Then of course there is the $4.5 million refund the Emory Medicare Care Foundation paid the Georgia Attorney General to settle a 1998 Medicaid fraud investigation — how much of that money had to be reimbursed because of abortion procedures performed in violation of federal law? Again, it's not the abortion that matters as much as it is that it was against federal law and Emory now seems to have a pattern of viewing itself above the law because, you know, it's working for the greater good.

Now comes the case of James J. Murtagh Jr. v. the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority. Mr Murtagh, a former Emory professor who worked as a doctor at Grady, filed, well, let's let the Georgia political paper Insider Advantage tell us:

Murtagh was a former Grady doctor and Emory University faculty member who filed a federal lawsuit accusing Emory and Grady of conspiring to defraud the federal government of millions of dollars.

Murtagh also accused Grady and Emory of subjecting him to a bad-faith peer review as retaliation against his whistleblowing. The peer review alleged that Murtagh violated the hospital's do-not-resuscitate policies. The case apparently was settled under seal after Grady and Emory lost a motion for summary judgment.

A former Grady trustee, William Loughrey, has called sealing of the settlement “outrageous” and charged that Emory and Grady were using tax dollars to silence whistleblowers.

Brian Johnson, who happens to be a friend of mine from law school, is a non-partisan lawyer in the Senate Research Office. He's looked into the mess and the fact that Grady had the settlement sealed from public view. Brian wrote

Review of this case raises troubling public policy questions relating to the operations of Grady Memorial Hospital (or any similarly situated public authority or public institution). Most troubling is the question of how those who identify or expose financial wrongdoing are treated. In a healthy organization, the reports of whistleblowers should be honestly and seriously investigated. Whistleblowers should not be the subjects of either retaliation or payments designed to purchase their silence. Along these lines, it is troubling that taxpayer funds were possibly used to obtain confidentiality agreements that would conceal from the public information concerning the alleged mismanagement of a government agency or misuse of public funds.

Brian also recommended that the General Assembly “ascertain whether or not taxpayer funds were paid to Dr. Murtagh and whether Grady requested the insertion of confidentiality provisions in the settlement agreement or sealing of the agreement itself.” As a matter of public policy in Georgia, the Georgia Attorney General never ever seals settlements involving taxpayer money, but the Fulton-Dekalb Hospital Authority had no problem.

There is an arrogance in all of this and it is not on the part of the General Assembly or those investigating Grady. In fact, more and more it seems that Grady is consumed with a tumor called Emory University — a tumor feeding on taxpayer dollars and the poor in need of healthcare. But it's okay because Emory is just working for the greater good.

Now, here is the full text of Rep. Melvin Everson's letter:

I was disturbed to learn that Emory University has been performing thousands of abortions at Grady Memorial Hospital and using this taxpayer owned and funded hospital to train abortionists. Federal and state law prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for abortion other than in cases of rape, incest and life threatening conditions. I applaud your decision to shut down this abortion mill and training facility. If Emory University desires to perform abortions or train abortionists, it should do so at its own facilities and not at a public hospital owned by the taxpayers.

I was also quite disturbed to learn that at least one woman ... was killed by a botched abortion at Grady and that the hospital was forced to pay a $3 million jury verdict to her young son.

As a member of the House Special Committee on Grady, I would like to know:

1. Whether Emory University has paid rent to the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority for the operation of its abortion mill and training facility.

2. Whether the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority paid Emory University for the faculty members and residents who staffed and taught at this abortion mill and training facility.

3. What other hospital resources, if any, were used to support this abortion mill and training facility.

4. What steps the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority has taken to make sure that Medicaid was not unlawfully billed by Emory University or the Emory Medical Care Foundation for elective or birth control abortions.

5. To what extent, if any, unlawful billings for abortions were involved in the $4.5 million refund paid by the Emory Medical Care Foundation to settle the 1998 Medicaid fraud investigation by Attorney General Thurbert Baker.

6. Who paid the $3 million jury verdict in the case of the botched abortion ...

7. Whether any other claims of malpractice have been brought against the abortion mill or Grady Health System for botched abortions.

8. How much the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority has paid defending or settling malpractice actions for abortion and whether any of this expense has been borne by Emory University or its abortionists.

9. Whether any of the aborted fetuses from Grady Memorial Hospital have been used by Emory University in its highly publicized biomedical research programs.