News Story - Idaho State Journal

POCATELLO -- Legacy Hospital Partners gave Portneuf Medical Center employees their first peek at their new benefits package that will go into effect in January, making good on a promise that the new package would equal or better their existing plan, according to PMC executives.

"Overall, employees are going to receive a much deeper and richer benefits package under LHP starting in January," said Cal Northam, PMC's Chief Operating Officer.

Northam cited two key features in the plan, the expanded maximum Paid Time Off (PTO) and Extended Illness benefits. Under the LHP plan, full-time employees will accrue up to 43 days of extended illness benefits during their first two years of service, and up to 22 days of paid time off, with accrued days increasing in increments for longer periods of service. In addition, employees' current years of service at PMC will count for both the extended illness and paid time off benefits.

The plan will also take into account years of service at Portneuf Medical Center by "grandfathering" employee tenure into the new benefits package. For example, employees' years of service at PMC will count for the purpose of vesting employer matching contributions to employee retirement programs.

Under the LHP plan, employee contribution costs to the health plan will be higher than under the current PMC plan, but still consistent with national standards: 12-15 percent of the costs for individual coverage, and between 27-33 percent of the costs for coverage of spouses and dependents. However, for all PMC employees currently enrolled in the hospital's health plan during 2008, LHP will offset those costs by increasing salaries starting Jan. 1, to ensure employees' take-home pay will stay the same.

The plan will contain one significant change, however, that employees may initially balk at. The LHP Health Plan does not allow coverage of the spouse of a PMC employee when that spouse's employer also offers a health plan--he spouse must enroll in his or her employer's plan if they desire health care coverage.

"This is as much a philosophical principle with Legacy Hospital Partners, Inc. as it is a business decision," said Tom Frazier, Executive Vice President. "As a healthcare company, we have a responsibility to do what we can to ensure that health care coverage for our employees is both high quality and as cost-efficient as possible, consistent with adequate coverage. Other employers have the same responsibility in relation to their employees. If an employee's spouse works somewhere where they offer a health insurance plan, that employer has the responsibility to provide affordable and adequate coverage."

While the change may appear costly at first, Legacy plans to offset the blow by making corresponding wage increases to make sure take-home pay will stay the same for employees whose spouses have been on PMC's health plan, but who must now enroll in their own employers' plans.

PMC employees whose spouses do not work outside the home, or whose employers do not offer health plans, will be able to enroll their spouses in the LHP plan, and that employees will always be able to enroll children or other qualified dependents.

"It's not our intent to deny anyone needed coverage," said Frazier.

The new plan also contains some plums. Under the current PMC retirement savings plan, employee contributions were matched for a total of 4.5 percent. Legacy will match up to 6 percent of an employee's contributions, starting with the first dollar contributed by the employee.

Neomi Perez, PMC manger of Compensation and Benefits, said she is pleased by Legacy's plan.

"I am excited that our new association with Legacy Hospital Partners will enable PMC to maintain a rich, competitive benefit offering for our employees," she said.

"This is exactly the same plan we're on at the corporate office," said Frazier. "It's the one I'm enrolled in. It's a good plan. In fact, vision and dental benefits are higher than under the current PMC plan."

Northam agreed with Frazier's assessment.

"It's just one of many benefits we'll see by being affiliated with Legacy," he said. "It's a simple matter of economy of scale. We're no longer going it alone."

By Journal Staff

This document was originally published online on Sunday, November 23, 2008

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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of our paper.

nothappy wrote on Nov 22, 2008 3:18 PM:

" A much deeper benifits package? Lets examine that. Expanded maximum Paid Time Off- the truth is under the new package employees earn less PTO a year than before. Under the new package LHP will match up to 6% on the retirement plan. Under the current package portneuf matches 4.5% but also kicks in another 1.5% (trying to make the LHP plan sound better this article failed to mention this information). Now on to medical insurance- under the new package the premiums double for essentially the same covrage. With the new package, spouses with a job that offers insurance are discriminated against. They will not continue to receive the medical benefits they have previously had. LHP is discriminating against one group of spouses and taking thier medical insurance away. In some cases, spouses are expected to get medical insurance through their work that may offer a less than average medical inusrance program. In one case I am aware of, this will decrease the yearly income of the LHP worker by thousands of dollars a year. How is this comparable or better? Spouses that do not work, or work for a company that does not offer insurance- they will continue to be covered through LHP. I have talked with more than a few employees that this affects and in their cases their take home pay will decrese. Now people might say thats just the way it is and the people of bannock county voted "Yes". Lets examine that. One week before the election PMC's administration released a memo assuring employees that their benifits under LHP would be "comparable or better". Armed with this promise, the 1400 employees of PMC were encouraged to vote "yes" and encourage their friends and neighbors to vote "yes". Now that the vote has passed and we find out that the benifits package, in my opinion, is not comparable nor is it better, let me ask these questions. If the 1400 employees of PMC knew what the benifits package was before the vote, would they have voted "yes"? Would they have encouraged their friends and neighbors to vote "yes"? Does the vote even pass? The paper writes a story of how pleased the employees are with the new benefit package. The employees should have been interviewed. The newspaper would have printed a very different story. Instead of the "same ol bull" the hospital administration gives trying to make themselves sound better and line their pockets deeper. Poll the employees. Then print a story. A real story that expresses the opinion of both sides (including the employees that are being discriminated against but can do nothing in this little town of kick backs and favors). "

bob wrote on Nov 24, 2008 2:21 AM:

" We’re still scratching our heads over this one. In what industry other than healthcare would it be acceptable
for the chief executive officer of one company to serve on the board of a new company competing in the
same industry? But that’s exactly the situation with Legacy Hospital Partners, the new for-profit hospital
chain launched last month by several former executives of Triad Hospitals (Jan. 21, p. 6).
Legacy’s board has 14 members, many of whom are well-known double dippers who serve as paid directors
on numerous healthcare boards: Uwe Reinhardt, Nancy-Ann DeParle and Gary Mecklenburg.
Reinhardt recently chaired a special commission in New Jersey that looked at the causes of its frail hospital
system (Jan. 28, p. 8). One of the problems, according to the final report was issues related to hospital
boards’ governance. In a case of inescapable irony, the report said: “Conflicts of interest can threaten the
integrity of the governance process. Hospital boards should have strong and explicit conflict of interest
policies.”
DeParle, a former Triad director like Reinhardt, is a commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory
Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare payment issues. And Mecklenburg it appears rarely has
met a board he wouldn’t serve on, even when he was president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial
HealthCare in Chicago. He’s the current chairman of the board of directors of Regency Hospital Co., the
long-term acute-care hospital chain.
What we didn’t expect to see on Legacy’s board are sitting not-for-profit hospital system CEOs. It has two:
David Bernd, CEO of Sentara Healthcare based in Norfolk, Va.; and Douglas Hawthorne, president and
CEO of Texas Health Resources in Arlington. In an interview with Modern Healthcare reporter Melanie
Evans, Bernd said he doubted there is any potential conflict of interest in running Sentara and serving
Legacy. Through a spokesman, Hawthorne told Evans much the same (Jan. 21, p. 7).
At the risk of sounding simplistic, let us point out the potential conflicts: Let’s say Bernd learns of a good
community hospital on the edge of Sentara’s service area that’s in need of capital. Does he seek to merge
the hospital into Sentara? Or, does he pick up the hotline to Denny Shelton, Legacy’s nonexecutive
chairman, and tell him he’s got a lead for Legacy? And if the call results in a deal with Legacy and
strengthens the community hospital, did that put Sentara at a competitive disadvantage?
Or let’s say one of Texas Health Resources’ 13 hospitals is struggling and dragging down the system’s
overall financial performance. Does Hawthorne continue to pump system capital into the hospital? Or, does
he recommend that his system consider a joint venture arrangement with Legacy to save the hospital
without risking Texas Health Resources’ capital but benefiting him personally as a Legacy director? Who
knows?
The bigger problem is that such deals undermine the credibility of the hospital lobby’s political agenda at
both the federal and state levels. Bernd, Mecklenburg and George Lynn, another Legacy board director
who’s president emeritus of the AtlantiCare hospital system in Atlantic City, N.J., are all former chairmen of
2
the American Hospital Association. The AHA and its allied associations have and continue to lobby against
physician ownership of specialty hospitals and the proliferation of physician-owned ambulatory surgery
centers. What better way to alienate physicians than to tell them they can’t make extra money on the side
while your leaders are moonlighting themselves. The public and lawmakers are noticing, too. A story in the
Jan. 27 Hartford (Conn.) Courant noted a state task force finding that hospital executive salaries have
skyrocketed statewide while the same executives are complaining that inadequate Medicaid funding is
undermining their institutions’ financial stability.
The boards of both Sentara and Texas Health Resources approved their top executives’ deals with Legacy,
according to both systems. Maybe they should read Reinhardt’s report from New Jersey.

Taken from: http://www.nonprofithealthcare.org/documentView.asp?docID=1105 "

jim wrote on Nov 24, 2008 4:20 PM:

" voter fraud "

Kathy wrote on Nov 24, 2008 4:38 PM:

" Just another example of the way things are run in this county. You are never given the truth before a decision has been made. The Hospital Administration sent out an e-mail to all employees about a week before the CBO was voted on stating in essence that things were not in place in time to see the benefits package before the vote took place and were assured that the benefits would be comparable or better. Now that the CBO passed, the benefits package was available very soon after, and come to find out, regardless what the Saturday article says, the benefits are not really even close to the previous (which I thought were sub-par to begin with) benefits package. Go figure...... the citizens and particularly the employees in this bannock county got duped again. I wonder if the Commissioners are looking into this or if they even care. Do you think there is something in it for them? Are they really serving the public?
Furthermore I really enjoy the attitude of Legacy officials dealing with the spouses of employees, "not our problem". They should find adequate insurance at thier own place of work. Large corporations have much more buying power for insurance premiums. I'm sorry but, not all other employers can offer "competative" insurance as the big boys. Great attitude Legacy! "

jeremy wrote on Nov 24, 2008 6:22 PM:

" Since this magically disappeared earlier i will repost.

Jeremy wrote on Nov 23, 2008 6:50 PM:

" What I am talking about is...Not all employers in this area have health insurance that is comparable. Deductibles are high, monthly premiums are high, and I as a hardworking employee will have to pay much more for my spouse to continue with substandard care that will not be covered under the "raise to cover the offset of the increased premiums". She is currently under my plan and I cannot continue her coverage because she can get coverage at her current employer that is way substandard to what she currently has. " "

qqq wrote on Nov 24, 2008 8:46 PM:

" Why will they cover some spouses and not others? That does not sound right. "

jeremy wrote on Nov 24, 2008 9:10 PM:

" They will only cover spouse's if they cannot get health insurance at their current jobs, even if it's substandard. I don't think its right either. Thanks "

me wrote on Nov 25, 2008 11:35 PM:

" Maybe people who supported everything about PMC and Legacy will finally listen now. Hate to say I told you so, but the naysayers to the vote and on the blogs were right. No one in their right minds expected Legacy to be as great as they pretended to be. Now, go ask the paid staff doctors and people over at the surgery center how ticked they are about what Legacy told them before, then after the vote. Bannock County - we got scammed!!!! Next, go ask someone what kind of "adios package" was put together before the vote for departing CEO PH and you'll really have something to yell about.

I also blame the voters who blindly go into the voting booth without seriously researching the issue and believing fluff ads on TV and the paper.

2009 is going to be rough all over for sure... "

you wrote on Nov 26, 2008 5:58 PM:

" Why doesent the media report on this? You would think there is at one media source in se idaho that has the guts to do so "

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