> So this means that all the work SEIU allegedly did in Ohio - all
> those 12-hour days spent talking to workers - still left virtually no
> trace on the ground, no base at all of rank and file support? The
> foundation was so weak that a few CNA carpetbaggers could spoil
> everything? You don't hear that such an argument sounds risibly thin?
It was just days ago that you doubted the CNA would ever sign a "backroom" organizing deal with a boss, right? I certainly understand how the CNA's propaganda machine plays on ignorance and employs outright lies to convince otherwise intelligent observers that black is white, war is peace, freedom is slavery, etc.
Yeah we built a base of CHP union activists in OH. I don't know what you mean by "no trace." The point of the campaign prior to the vote was not to build an organization that could withstand the unionbusting "vote no" campaign that the CNA ran, but for workers to put pressure on CHP and its allies to let that system's workers have a free and fair union election. So union activists were busy engaging management, their allies, the Catholic Church, politicians, etc. and not their fellow workers in their hospitals.
Why didn't we start building the union en masse in CHP hospitals? Because, as those familiar with organizing campaigns today know, as soon as you start talking to workers broadly (i.e. every hospital, every unit and floor, every shift), in come the anti-union "consultants" with their scare tactics. Then it becomes a race to see who can get to the workforce first, before the boss is able to "burn turf" -- i.e. create such a tense and stressful environment that workers just want the whole thing to end.
What more can I tell you beyond what's already been mentioned (community pressure, CHP expansion in Springfield, OH) to convince you this was no sweetheart deal? Here's one thing: SEIU research ended a scheme through which OH hospitals -- including CHP -- bilked since 1997 the workers compensation system in that state for more than half a billion dollars. That's billion, with a "B." If you don't see how something like this could get the attention of CHP and other hospital systems in OH, then you're blind. As I mentioned before, much of what constituted the CSR campaign never made the papers -- the engagement took another 2.5 years from this point.
What did the CNA do to make CHP back off? Fuck all. Sweetheart, company union deal? My ass.
Toledo Blade (Ohio) July 14, 2005 Thursday City Final Edition Ohio lawmaker proposes cuts to BWC payments to hospitals BYLINE: JOSHUA BOAK BLADE STAFF WRITER SECTION: Pg. A6 LENGTH: 812 words THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2005
COLUMBUS - Citing research that hospitals overcharged the Bureau of Workers' Compensation by $544 million during the last seven years, a state legislator has unveiled a plan to reduce the bureau's spending.
"Workers' Comp is a 'cash cow' for Ohio's hospitals, which have been milking the system for all it's worth - at the expense of injured workers and honest businesspeople," said state Rep. Barbara Sykes (D., Akron) at a news conference yesterday.
Based on a labor union's analysis of hospital records, Ms. Sykes said the excess payments stem from a 1997 decision in which the bureau agreed to reimburse hospitals at an inflated sticker price. The bureau now repays 70 percent of inpatient costs and 60 percent of outpatient costs.
Ms. Sykes called for the bureau's oversight commission, which meets next week, to reimburse hospitals strictly at the cost of their services plus 10 percent. The plan would slash the bureau's annual payments of $289 million to hospitals by a third.
"Immediately, that could save $275,000 a day, $90 million a year," said Scott Courtney, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union 1199, the organization that sponsored the research. "It's certainly much better than what they're doing today."
Bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson disagreed, saying Ms. Sykes' proposal could eventually undermine the agency's mission and deny medical attention to workers.
"The bureau's concern at this point is whether the representative has looked at the potential long-term ramifications from implementing a short-term solution," he said. "At the end of the day, we need to make sure that an injured worker doesn't need to drive miles and miles to get treatment."
Mr. Jackson said the bureau plans to cap fee increases in 2006 and hopes to find a long-term solution to rising hospital costs before the end of the year. He also said that the bureau has attempted to work with its critics.
At the invitation of the bureau's interim administrator, Tina Kielmeyer, union leaders met with the bureau before Ms. Sykes' noon news conference.
"They have not been willing to share their data with us," said Mr. Jackson, who was not in attendance at the meeting. "Nor have they shown an inclination to want to work with us."
Union leader Mr. Courtney disputed the meeting's outcome, stating that he wants to collaborate with the bureau, but he remained firm on wanting them to adopt Ms. Sykes' plan. "They asked me if I would be willing to participate with other stakeholders, hospitals, employers, workers, and I said, 'Absolutely.' Why wouldn't we want to be there?"
The Ohio Hospital Association, which represents hospitals' concerns to the bureau, said that the union's confrontational approach hurts the chances of providing a viable solution.
"If the SEIU is working for the public good, wouldn't it make more sense for the union to work with the Ohio Hospital Association and its member hospitals before issuing these reports?" spokesman Tina Himmelreich said.
Mr. Courtney said he had no plans of cooperating with the Ohio Hospital Association.
"We will work with the Ohio Hospital Association the day they acknowledge our right to exist," Mr. Courtney said.
The plan would hurt revenues for local hospitals, such as St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, which employs 3,500 people in metropolitan Toledo.
Based on 2003 figures, it would cut payments to St. Vincent to $6.1 million from $10.1 million.
Part of problem could be that the union is underestimating a hospital's costs by relying on government programs to figure out prices, said Samantha Platzke, the chief financial officer for Mercy Health Partners, which runs St. Vincent.
"Their cost information is derived from Medicare cost reports, and that's not an accurate way because it only involves Medicare patients," she said.
Ms. Platzke said she disapproved of the proposal. "I'm not in a position right now where I believe the billing system needs to be reformed."
The proposal was made almost a month after state Representative Sykes held a fact-finding hearing on nonprofit hospitals, where she concluded that hospitals receive $900 million in tax breaks but provide only $219 million in charity care.
Yesterday, she called for a bipartisan committee to investigate hospital practices statewide. Ms. Sykes said a Harvard University study encouraged her to start examining hospitals. The study found that medical bills caused half of all personal bankruptcies in America.
An expert on bankruptcy warned that reforming hospitals would not stop runaway health-care costs. "I know there's a lot of concern that hospitals are doing something wrong," said Melissa Jacoby, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill law school. "But hospitals are only one player in this large health-care game and they're not going to be able to solve that problem by themselves."
The Blade, Toledo, Ohio October 1, 2005, Saturday Bureau of Workers' Compensation's health-payment cuts upheld BYLINE: By Joshua Boak LENGTH: 704 words
A Franklin County judge refused to grant a restraining order against the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation for its reduced payments to hospitals, which will go into effect today as planned. The Ohio Hospital Association, which represents 170 hospitals statewide, filed suit yesterday to stop the changes, objecting to the process by which Tina Kielmeyer, the workers' comp agency's interim administrator, amended the reimbursement policies.
After a pair of investment scandals and research by the Service Employees International Union District 1199 showed that the bureau overpaid hospitals for treating injured workers, Gov. Bob Taft asked the bureau to consider restructuring its payment system.
"The Taft administration's plan to cut $ 50 million in hospital payments for care to injured workers through 2006 is an inappropriate response to political problems at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation," OHA president James Castle said.
At an August meeting of representatives for employers, employees, and health-care providers, the bureau initially proposed to cut the percentage of charges it reimbursed.
"They were at the symposium and the administrator made it very clear that she would welcome any additional input after that," said bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson, who claimed that the bureau was surprised by the lawsuit.
"We considered their input," Mr. Jackson said. "Their solution was to do nothing."
In response to concerns raised by stakeholders, the bureau decided to implement a different plan. During the next 15 months, hospitals will be repaid for the cost of a medical treatment plus 12 percent for an inpatient procedure and 16 percent for an outpatient procedure.
Coupled with freezes in Medicaid spending, Ohio Hospital Association officials claim the new policy could have a dire impact on hospitals' finances. The organization estimates that 110 hospitals will receive less money under the plan.
Mary Yost, an OHA spokesman, said the bureau ignored following the appropriate procedures for approving the revised payment plan. The grounds for the lawsuit by the hospital association and the Genesis HealthCare System in Zanesville are that the changes needed to be vetted with hearings and a commission, a process that usually takes 90 days, Mrs. Yost said.
Judge Richard Frye of Franklin County Common Pleas Court found that this argument did not merit a restraining order. But Judge Frye declined to take further action because he was substituting for Judge Beverly Pfeiffer, who was assigned to the case, Mrs. Yost said.
The hospital association plans to ask Judge Pfeiffer for a preliminary injunction, an order prohibiting the bureau from instituting the payment system, Mrs. Yost said.
Even if the basis for the lawsuit is procedural, SEIU executive vice president Scott Courtney said the hospital association's rationale was sour grapes.
"Because you don't like the outcome of something, doesn't mean you get to run out and sue them," he said, adding that hospitals are upset because they can no longer wring profits from the bureau. "Somebody ought to sue them to get back the half a billion dollars they made since 1997," Mr. Courtney said.
In separate news, two investment experts were appointed to join the bureau's oversight commission, one of the reforms prompted by the bureau's troubled ventures in rare coins and an offshore hedge fund.
Ohio Treasurer Jennette Bradley announced on Thursday that Edwin McCausland, president of Investment Perspectives, a management consultant based in Columbus, will join the commission. Denise Farkas, senior vice president of Spero-Smith Investment Advisers in Cleveland, will also join the commission, after receiving an appointment from state Senate President Bill Harris (R., Ashland) and House Speaker Jon Husted (R., Kettering).