Readers Respond To Red County San Bernardino Analysis Of County Hospital Multi-Million Dollar Budget Shortfall
Posted by: SB Insider | 05/20/2007 11:01 PM
From the reader comments section attached to the Red County San Bernardino posting dated May 18, 2007 by blogpen author Joseph Turner, comes an insightful and well-documented response by a reader who wished to remain anonymous. Turner's report was an analysis of a Riverside Press Enterprise news article on a $20 million budget shortfall currently being faced by San Bernardino County's public hospital, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
Under normal circumstances, this website would not spotlight a comment authored by an anonymous reader, but the missive was lengthy, very articulate and the writer contributed a bevy of facts and documentation to support his or her opinion. The writer's argument being that San Bernardino County CAO Uffer is under-performing in his duties and responsibilities in that important position.
Although the commenter declined to provide his or her name, it is clear the author is quite familiar and/or well versed on recent county government actions. It is very probable that the writer either attends county board of supervisors meetings as an interested citizen observer, or is a committed reader of news accounts of county government actions from a variety of media outlets.
Here is the reader's complete response:
I would first like to let the County Board of Supervisors know I am expecting remittance for performing the function of County Administrative Officer today. I am available for the position as soon as it is available which I am sure will be quite soon.
Since Mark Uffer’s managerial ineptitude scores higher than a “wardrobe malfunction” on Dancing With The Stars, let me perform my public service for the week.
Management 101 – Start with what was broken last year and follow up.
Realignment revenue was off $8.5 Million dollars last year. Health Realignment income represents 11.23% or the FOURTH largest bucket of the Center’s net revenue. Start by following up on the remittances that were not made last year and investigate whether these transfers have been happening this year.
Management 102 – Put a program in place to ensure consistency of transmittals to the Center and ensure regular reporting to the CAO.
Five buckets are responsible for double digit revenue. Make sure those buckets are full or you’re going to drown in your own fiscal irresponsibility. In this order: insurance revenue (18.83%), Disproportionate Share Hospital Funds (14.56%), Medi-Cal Fee for Service (14.18%), Health Realignment (11.23%), and Medicare (10.90%) are the workhorses of your revenue stream. What accountability is in place to ensure collection on these accounts?
Management 201 – Proper Staffing
I’ve heard staffing and employee relations aren’t your forte but work with me on this for a moment. In the previous fiscal year you lost almost a million dollars because of poor staffing. You had to use temporary help to keep up with mandated staffing ratios which is always more expensive (except of course in the case of a runaway CAO). If the patient census is projected to increase, staffing and salaries must also be adjusted. For this fiscal year you were to adjust for another 115 nursing positions. Was this done? What contingency plans were put in place? Or did you just let the hose run on the taxpayers for what you could not effectively manage?
In short Mr. Uffer, let me create a task list for you:
1) Tender your resignation
If the supervising official has no cogent explanation for a deficit of this size, you have no business managing my money. You’re either ignorant of the situation or are completely derelict in your duty to the taxpayers of the County. In either case, $20 million is too high a price to pay for any government official.
Red County San Bernardino will update this growing story as developments occur.
[Editor's note: Red County San Bernardino does not necessarily endorse the sentiment and opinion expressed by the anonymous reader's comment. Red County San Bernardino is presenting the reader's viewpoint simply as an opinion expressed by a concerned reader as a response to an original RCSB analysis of a published news story.]
This is why many sports ban the use of performance enhancing drugs. Another form of doping is blood...
Well, something does stink in San Bernardino County, and while Mark Uffer is to blame for a significant portion of ARMC's troubles, let's not forget the roles our county's top politicians have played in this mess.
Specifically, former Board of Supervisors Chair Bill Postmus and current Board Chair Paul Biane. Both Postmus and Biane delivered Uffer to this county, despite documented performance issues in Uffer's previous job. Now Biane is defending Uffer's management of the county's finances. Unbelievable.
Yes, Mark Uffer has his share of problems and deserves a large part of the blame, especially on Arrowhead's mismanagement and multi-million dollar budget shortfall, of which taxpayers may be one day be on the hook. But remember the roles Postmus and Biane played in this mess as well, by bringing Uffer and his cronies to San Bernardino County's Government Center in the first place.
I agree, Postmus and Biane both share responsibility with this screwup.
With a budget the size of San Bernardino County's, it is very easy to slide money around to avoid exceeding approved appropriation limits.
Clearly, the reply comment was from someone familiar with the internal workings of the Medical Center finance structure. Probably the Administrative Office.
I'm sure Uffer isn't pleased about this development. I wonder if the accounts receivable of the facility is abornally high enough to make the excuse hold water.
I doubt it!!!!!!!!
San Bernardino County finances are a joke and getting even more ridiculous.
Get this. The Board of Supervisors has exceeded their own annual budget appropriation, and now the County Administrative Officer has requested each board district forward all bills and invoices to his office for payment.
I guess this is the price for getting along.
The Sheriff's Department budget will over by millions of dollars. Blame a drop in projected revenue... (Golly Gee Batman, where have we heard that before?)
The only problem, the shortfall is being blamed on prop 172 payments being two months in arrears. The only problem is that sales tax collections are payed two months behind by the Board of Equalization as a standard practice due to the lag time caused by remittance to the state by the retailers and the reconciliation and transfer to the counties by the state.
Other departments may exceed as well.