Dive Brief:
- The six remaining trustees at a Mississippi health system say they will not resign, despite being requested to do so by the Jackson County Board of Supervisors. Singing River Health System has been involved in an ongoing scandal in which the system planned to liquidate its pension plan to pay expenses and admitted it had stopped contributing to the plan in 2009.
- Meanwhile, State Sen. Brice Wiggins has introduced a bill that includes an option to end the terms of all SRHS trustees as of next January, by allowing the county supervisors who take office at that time to appoint all-new trustees.
- In another new development, a federal judge has issued a 90-day order covering the timeframe of mid-December to mid-March, during which it says the SRHS pension plan "shall not be terminated and/or dissolved." It also says SRHS can't "take any further action to affect the operation or status of the Plan, including, but not limited to, implementing termination of the Plan."
Dive Insight:
A statement from Michael Heidelberg, president of the trustees, says the remaining members voted remain so they can share their knowledge and experience of the health system as the board works toward a recovery. It's clearly a sensitive situation, however, and potentially a conflict, given that the recovery will involve an examination of the past events under this board that led the health system to this financial crisis.
As Supervisor John McKay told the press, "There is nothing else we can do. We will continue to work very diligently with the hospital Board of Trustees to get to the bottom of this issue and to hold those responsible for their actions and we will continue to expect full cooperation of the hospital board of trustees."