The Big Bang           The Donald
  
    Life presents many mysteries.
   Like:
   What existed before the Big Bang created the universe?
   Or why is Donald Trump?
   Naturally, the unfathomable also exists in the world of health care.
   For example, while the $1 billion tax-funded North Broward Hospital District is  governed by a board of seven politically appointed Commissioners, nary a one could grasp the profound mysteries* locked in the startling health care data below:   

Fiscal year 2010

FY 2010            Total Surplus     Non Patient     Surplus (Loss)
                              Revenue             Revenue      W/O Non Patient
                                                                                            Revenue
Tax Supported                                                                               
Broward General    $45.3 million          $72.1 million          ($26.8 million)
Coral Springs          $8.3 million            $13.8 million          ($5.5 million)
Imperial Point         $2.9 million            $9.2 million            ($6.3 million)
North Broward        $11.8 million          $30.5 million          ($18.7 million)
Total Hospitals      $68.3 million          $125.6 million      ($57.3 million)

Tax Supported
Mem. Miramar       $19.4 million            $2.6 million           $16.8 million
Mem. Pembroke     $0.4 million              $6.3 million           ($5.9 million)
Mem. Regional       $38.2 million            $143.4 million      ($105.2 million)
Mem. West             $65.6 million            $13.1 million         $52.5 million
Total Hospitals      $123.6 million         $165.4 million       ($41.8 million)

Non Profit
Cleveland Clinic      $26.8 million           $0.6 million           $26.2 million 
Holy Cross               $14.5 million           $19.8 million         ($5.4 million)
Total Hospitals       $41.3 million          $20.4 million        $20.8 million

For Profit
Northwest               ($0.9 million            $0.3 million          ($1.2 million)Plantation               ($7.9  million)          $2.5 million          ($10.4 million)
University                $10.6 million           $2.0 million           $8.6 million
Westside                 $50.8 million           $0.3                       $50.5 million
Total Hospitals       $52.6 million          $5.1 million          $47.5 million

*Not that any North Broward District Administrator would ever explain the profound importance of the health care mysteries locked in this startling data. JKdeG

SOURCE: American Hospital Director – www.ahd.com
From data submitted by hospitals

                    
Fact:
     The tax funded North Broward Hospital District has bank-rolled nearly $600 million in cash and investments– which ain’t chopped liver healthcare-wise.
     What’s more, the giant hospital system agency has budgeted some $2.6 million for consultants hired to handle is investment portfolio. JKdeG  

                                     Cash & Investments
Fiscal Year  2000                    2011                 2012  
                     $140,011,032    $458,472,000   $591,426,000         
 
   *Source: North Broward Hospital District
                     Department of Financial Management

                 
                   

     With an annual advertising budget of more than $3 million, the tax-funded North Broward Hospital District spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on full page ads in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
      Small wonder, revenue lust sparked orders from the newspaper’s marketing department instructing reporters and editors to shun any and all negative coverage of the on-going political in-fighting between the giant health care hospital system’s administrators and the seven politically-appointed Board of Commissioners charged with governing  the Hospital District. JKdeG.

      Here are the salary* trends for physicians and other health care workers employed by the tax-supported North Broward Hospital District. (*Excluding fringe benefits.)
      Why have the doctors and health care workers at one of the nation’s ten largest public hear care systems enjoyed pay hikes nearly twice the increase in the consumer price index? (Note: the average South Florida worker's paycheck has failed to match the increase in the cost of living.)
      (A) It’s the trial lawyers fault!
      ( Obamacare did it!
      (C) WTF – It’s only tax dollars!
                               2001             2011              2012                  % 
                               Audited       Audited         Authorized**                     
Adjusted                                                                                CPI 27%
Admissions         105,810       110,324        114,754           8%

Employees FTE    5,923           6,915             7,115               20%
Salary Per FTE      $40,754      $61,779        $61,181          50%   
                       
Physicians FTE     104               148                 167                   61%
Salary Per FTE      $169,940    $276,968      $276,813       63%   

**Rubber-stamped by the district’s seven politically appointed governing board of Commissioners.

SOURCE: North Broward Hospital District,
                Department of Financial Management

For years, my on-going thesis involving the giant tax-funded North Broward Hospital District is that the seven politically-appointed commissioners governing one of the nation's ten largest health care systems haven't a clue as to most of what the $1 billion-plus operation's administrators are doing.
All of which explains my latest public records request - JKdeG:  

To: Maryanne Wing, executive assistant to the president & CEO , North Broward Hospital District

Under provisions of Florida “Sunshine Law” statutes governing public records, please supply me with the following:

1. Minutes indicating the approval of a physician bonus program and amounts by the Broward Health Board of Commissioners – as reported  in the District’s annual budget.
2. Formal criteria detailing how and why various physicians would receive an annual bonus.
3. Names of the administrative staff responsible for awarding the annual physician bonuses.
4. Names of physicians and bonus amounts for District Fiscal Years 2008 through 2011.

     As always, thank you for your cooperation in this matter

    John degroot
    Resident and taxpayer
    North Broward Hospital District
    DBA Broward Health

Physician Bonus Expenditures 
Line Item # 60306                         
FY        2007              $0
FY        2008              $4,166,982 
FY        2009              $5,347,411 
FY        2010              $6,311,927 
FY        2011              $8,144,899
FY        2012*            $8,551,709*

*Expenditure approved by Broward Health governing
  Board of Commissioners – 9/2011

SOURCE: North Broward Hospital District
                Department of Financial Management

           He's Back!    
         
         Ex-Commissioner Joe Cobo 
      
      File this under WTF?!?!
      Like North Broward Hospital District boss Frank Nask has hired former District Commissioner Joe Cobo as a consultant  -- this less than a few months after Cobo’s term expired as one of the tax-funded health care system’s governing trustees.
      Which raises serious questions involving a possible conflict of interest.
      Not that this would be Cobo’s first conflict of interest rodeo in his dealings with the District.
      However...
      Dollars to doughnuts says the District's mega-paid General Counsel Sam Goren has already come up with a bullshit rulling allowing Nask to hire Ex-Commissioner  Cobo who -- by the way -- also represents numerous doctors in their private dealings with the giant health care system.
     Bottom line?
     Pass the vomit bags.     

American Health Care
      Will Soaring  Costs Prove Terminal*?
 (*Health Care Costs to Hit 19.3% of GDP by 2019)
               US Health Care – Total Spending
           Per Capita – Projection Sans  “Obamacare"
                               2004         2009         2014           2019
TOTAL                   $6,327      $8,047      $10,148     $13,387   112%
Out-of-Pocket     $801         $921          $1,085       $1,390     74%
Health
Insurance              $5,527      $7,124       $8,964      $11,997   117%
   Private                $2,204      $2,632       $3,130      $4,063      84%
   Government      $2,864      $3,917       $5,114      $6,953      130%   
SOURCE: US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid –   www.c
                 
        Average Total Health Insurance Premium
                 Projection Sans “Obamacare”
              2003         2010       2015           2020