Letter: Independent board should operate UMC

Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2002 | 8:55 a.m.

Aside from the fact that the Clark County commissioners, who sit as the Board of Directors for University Medical Center, have obvious conflicts of interest, why would anyone think about the notion of their giving up the power and the money that goes with that arrangement?

Having been chief of staff at UMC for 1981-82, and a member of Executive Committee for several more years, it was brought to my attention in 1987 by an external audit report that "cooking the books" was a common and accepted practice.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but to give you an idea, it was reported that the county was short about $15 million for that year and the commissioners were "incensed" at the shortfall. They failed to mention, however, that those same commissioners had not paid the indigent bill they owed the hospital (about $11 million), and the state had not paid its Medicaid bill (about $13 million).

Similarly, about three to four years ago I saw in the paper that of approximately $26 million owed by the state in Medicaid fees (for a three-year period), UMC had agreed to accept about $5 million as full payment. Bottom line: If the state would pay its Medicaid fee and the county its indigent fee, there would not be any shortfall at UMC.

No question that it is time to revisit the organization of UMC. Even before I came to Las Vegas in 1973, the wisdom and appropriateness of having the county commissioners sit as the board of directors was seriously questioned.

In my opinion, the best solution would be to have an independent board of directors run the hospital, or consider having the medical school take over.

LEONARD KREISLER, M. D.