The Rules and Judiciary Committee heard from two nominees to the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital governing board and one to the V.I. Board of Medical Examiners, Thursday and senators present said the three should face no difficulty being confirmed.
The committee heard from Board of Medical Examiners nominee, Dr. Mavis Matthew and JFL board nominees Kimberly Jones, and Troy de Chabert-Schuster.
While multiple senators were present, no vote was taken because there was not a quorum of members of the committee. However, all senators present, including Rules Chairman Sammuel Sanes, said the candidates were all excellent and would be put to a quick vote at the next Rules meeting, which is scheduled for Aug. 21.
Nominees to the Gov. Juan F. Luis Governing Board are especially important because the board has lacked a quorum since July 2013, when several members resigned at the request of interim Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kendall Griffith. Griffith had resigned, then said he would return to the post, but only if board chair Kye Walker and others resigned. At the time, several V.I. senators, including Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, threatened to dissolve the board legislatively if they did not comply. However a special session to consider the question was canceled after Walker’s resignation. (See: Senators Plan to Legislate Who is JFL CEO in related links below)
Sens. Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly and Judi Buckley focused several questions on what Buckley called "the elephant in the room of physician compensation," referring to the local practice where doctors who are on salary at the hospital also directly bill patients for their services, while the hospital charges a facilities fee. And if they treat the patient at their own offices, they keep all of the funds.
These billing practices came under scrutiny during Senate hearings on Nov. 22, 2013, when the hospital came to beg the Legislature for a cash advance to make payroll. (See Related Links below) At the time, then-Chief Financial Officer Deepak Bansal said changing to a more usual compensation method would make a huge difference in the hospital’s finances. He said the salaries are lower than the national average but, while salaries are low, total compensation is very high, even as the hospital goes broke.
"To put it in context, Schneider (Regional Medical Center) and JFL are the only two hospitals in the United States with this model," Bansal said at the time.
At the same hearing, Dr. Griffith opposed changing the way doctors are compensated, saying "I don’t think changing the physician model will make us break even. I think it will bring in additional revenues – there is no doubt about that – but there is no way right now, without crunching the numbers, to say we would break even."
A week later, on Nov. 29, Griffith fired Bansal and both his assistants, who together were the hospital’s entire financial team. The three dismissals were blended with layoffs of 15 hospital employees and the hospital issued a statement at the time saying it was laying off employees for financial reasons. (See: Black Friday at JFL Hospital – Layoffs, Pay Cuts)
Buckley asked Jones and de Chabert-Schuster if they would support changing the compensation system generally and specifically if they would support having JFL physicians sign a "non-compete" contract, so that they had to treat patients at the hospital if the hospital offered the service and could not compete for the same patients while paid a salary by the hospital. Both said they would support non-compete contracts. de Chabert-Schuster said physician compensation is not as high as it seems, because the hospital gets a large facility fee.
Several senators, including Buckley, O’Reilly, Diane Capehart and Kenneth Gittens, urged Jones and de Chabert-Schuster to make sure the hospital sends out bills for all its services and follows up on those who have not paid. Senators referred to recent budget hearings where hospital officials said billing for self-pay and cash customers had ceased for a time and was just beginning to re-start.
JFL’s interim Chief Financial Officer Michael Younger, who came on board at the hospital earlier this year, testified July 17 that "sometime in 2013, the billing just stopped. … No one was minding the store," and he is now "reengaging the process."
Jones and de Chabert-Schuster both said billing would be a focus of their attention.
Matthew received her medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in 1984 and a master’s degree in public health in 1992 from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene in 1992.
Matthew started at the Department of Health in 1987 as a pediatrician at the Frederiksted Health Center. She later held top management posts at Health, serving as commissioner of Health under Gov. Charles W. Turnbull from 2001-2003. She has been chief of pediatrics and of the hospital nursery since 2005. She is currently interim chief medical officer at Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital.
Jones has a background in nursing and accounting. She was certified as a Licensed Practical Nurse by St. Croix Vocational Practical Nursing School in 1999 and a certification in peritoneal dialysis from Regents University. She has been certified by the Centers for Medicare Services as a medical billing specialist since 2001.
Jones is a radio host on WVVI and WMNG and chief operating officer of LICA Holdings Corp. She has been a nursing instructor and a staff nurse at Luis Hospital. She is an owner of Jones Maritime, a 15-slip marina in Christiansted Harbor.
Troy de Chabert-Schuster has a bachelor’s in accounting from Xavier University in Ohio and a Master of Divinity from Mount Saint Mary’s. He was a deacon, priest and pastor from 1995 to 2006. He is an owner of the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy and Bougainvillea Perfumeria. He said in his testimony that
his mother and her siblings donated the land the hospital sits on.
Committee members at Thursday’s meeting were Capehart, Gittens and Sanes. Non-committee members present were Buckley, Rivera-O’Reilly and Sen. Tregenza Roach.
