Originally appeared on the Lee County Bulletin website
The recent exposure of EAMC greed and fraud has struck a chord with past and present Hosts of the EAMC Parasite. Many have emailed complaining that EAMC treated them like a slab of meat, but surprisingly, many of those who have contacted the Bulletin are former or current EAMC employees encouraging us, saying we've uncovered only the tip of the iceberg, keep it up. Word is the morale among the EAMC workforce is very bad. They say Covid 19 is used as an excuse to treat employees poorly; management is insensitive to the workload and employees are simply overworked and understaffed. I spoke to a nurse who moved here from Iowa to take a job at EAMC, but after two months, decided to find a job at a physician’s office due to poor working conditions at the hospital. She was shocked that nurses were instructed to use patients' insurance like credit cards. When prepping for procedures, she would rightfully pick every conceivable supply that could be needed, but if the hospital didn’t use all the supply items, whether re-stocked or not, the cost was placed on the patient’s bill.
The following link will take you to the pages cited below. https://www.munios.com/munios-archive.ashx?e=1GMIC
Page 12 of the Official Statement regarding $31.71 M Health Care Facilities Bonds Series 2018A issued by East Alabama Health Care Authority states: ”Blue Cross is the dominant Health care provider in the Authority’s market. In fiscal year 2017, Blue Cross revenues were approximately 91% of total revenues by the Authority from managed care providers and insurance companies.” Is it merely coincidence that the last two EAHCA Chairmen of the Board have also been members of the Board of Directors of BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama (BCBSAL)? Page A-2 of the Appendix of Official Statement states Terry Andrus was a BCBSAL Board Director and Page A-4 shows Dr. Joel Pittard as a former board member of BlueCross BlueShield. It is not a coincidence. EAMC and BlueCross BlueShield clearly collude to facilitate each other’s theft. If you challenge one, you challenge both. Good luck.
Now let’s look at other board members of East Alabama Health Care Authority. Why would so many folks from Auburn Bank be on the EAHCA board? There is Bob Dumas and before him E. L. Spencer. While serving as Pres/CEO of EAMC, Andrus was on the Board of Directors of Auburn Bank and continues to this day. Very cozy for Andrus to have been on all three boards: BCBSAL, EAHCA and Auburn Bank. Interlocking directorates where all three entities', interests, including his, are guaranteed. One does not fight one entity without fighting the whole cartel. But then such aristocratic oligarchies only exists in Russia or communist countries, right? Definitely not in Lee County Alabama, right? There are aristocrats and serfs so when aristocrats inherit land, the serfs living on it belong with the land as chattel property. The serfs work in the aristocrat's mills (factories, hospital). They're tax slaves as well and the Politburo keeps them uninformed by actions similar to Oline Price's actions. Does the hospital encourage the Supernumerary Revenue Commissioner to withhold information about the Special Hospital tax? Then there's Bill English who does not make primary documents available (online or upon open document requests), or last, the local media that declines to report the truth about our overlords' malfeasance.
With the media in the Politburo's/Oligarchy's pocket, traditionally there has been no way to expose sub-standard treatment in the hospital. Anyone who blows the whistle on EAMC malpractice is stonewalled and his credibility questioned. Mr. Fite, the Aperian whistleblower, was harassed when he pointed out Sam Price’s fraud. EAMC then claimed Fite was having an improper affair with an EAMC employee and fired him. They deny what they do, they fire you, they trash your reputation, etc. This is how they maintain absolute control within the corporation.
EAMC uses the same tactics on those outside the organization, the patient victims. Take Dodson in the billing office. He lies about the bill, he is slow to provide an (incomplete and fabricated) itemized bill. He colludes with BCBSAL to cover up his and EAMC lies. One can report abuse and theft up the EAMC/EAHCA corporate chain, but at each level, every EAMC administrator will misrepresent the facts and say he/she is sorry you feel that way. They know they have the power. EAMC does not deal with the patient, they deal with a third party insurance company like BCBSAL. A company with whom they have a collusive relationship; they are members on each other’s Board; life is good for the greedy with connections. The patient has no control and the County Commission refuses to exercise its oversight authority.
If those facts are not daunting enough, the Code of Alabama gives Authorities such as EAHCA:
1. Section 22-21-334 Non-applicability of Ethics Act.
2. Section 22-21-328 Exemption from usury and interest laws
3. Section 22-21-333 Exemptions from taxation
So ethics don’t apply to EAMC, usury doesn’t apply, it can charge any interest it wants and lastly it doesn’t pay taxes on property or earnings. Very sweet deal, but it’s still not enough for a greedy corporation like EAHCA. It cheats the US government, it cheats the County, it cheats the patients and it cheats its employees. See a practice, a pattern?
The Bulletin wants to hear from you. It will protect your name or specific facts that would help EAMC identify and punish you. We want to keep our hospital and there is demonstrable evidence that current management has replaced its Hippocratic mission with a mission of pure GREED. We believe the standard of care at EAMC is marginal at best and believe the problem originates from the top and has insidiously worked its way down. We believe there will be no change in culture until upper management is held accountable: Pittard, Sam Price, Puppet Grill, Roben Nutter Casey, etc. Pay no attention to the man still behind the curtain: Master puppeteer Terry Andrus, "Emeritus".
Before closing, I have a retraction. I too quickly reported that the County Commission must approve a bond issue, but cannot definitively confirm this; the Code is ambiguous on Commission approval. It clearly authorizes health care authorities to issue bonds, but if Commission approval is indeed unnecessary, I do not know how the taxpayer can defend himself or family from a corrupt EAHCA continuing to issue more debt in the form of bonds and therefore extending the Special Hospital Tax into perpetuity. If the Commission were more transparent, exercised its oversight authority, or made information more available on the web, we would not have to speculate or try to connect dots. Shouldn’t Public Servants keep us informed and let us weigh in on what we the taxpayer want to do with our taxes? Under the circumstances, EAHCA is not giving proper weight to the annual $7 M Special Hospital Tax when we taxpayers enter the hospital. I do not think upper management has been held accountable and this failure to discipline demonstrable malfeasance has emboldened unbridled GREED and those paying customers who are actually financing the hospital are abused and bear a disproportionate share of the burden of financing the hospital.
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