Billy Guice has remarked that if someone in Singing River administration would have “manned up” a few years ago, the entire pension crisis could have been avoided. Just a few short months following his exit at SRHS, Chris Anderson did MAN up and executives and Singing River climbed right into bed with him.
In this case, MAN stands for Mississippi Affiliated Network, LLC. The group was formed with Chris Anderson as president and Evan Dillard of Forrest General as secretary. MAN is attempting to create a network of hospitals to work outside of networks controlled by the Blue Crosses and United Healthcares of the world.
SRHS Sends Funds to Anderson, MAN
For several months Singing River has been sending funds to MAN. This is with the full knowledge and approval of CEO Kevin Holland, CFO Lee Bond, and the Board of Trustees. The rapidity with which MAN was formed and SRHS’ joining the group shows that Singing River executives have never cut ties to Anderson. They likely have no intentions of doing so.
Ties to Vanderbilt, SRHS
MAN is modeled on the Vanderbilt Healthcare Affiliated Network (VHAN) and fingerprints of Vanderbilt are on the MAN deal. MAN doesn’t yet have a website, but msaffiliatednetwork.com domain name was purchased by VHAN. Singing River’s former VP of Clinical Integration Chris Morgan is now employed by VHAN.
Third Party Administrators
Large employers like Chevron and Ingalls don’t actually purchase health insurance for employees. With so many people enrolled in the health plan, it is more cost efficient for large employers to self-insure. The complexity of medical billing and reimbursement and legal requirements prevent employers from administering the plans themselves, so they hire outside companies to operate the health plan. These are known as “third-party administrators” or TPAs.
Once hired by an employer, TPAs negotiate with local doctors and hospitals for discounts, promising to send hundreds or thousands of patients in return.
MAN is trying to shift the power away from the middle-man TPAs to deal with employers directly. MAN would employ its own TPA and participating hospitals (and potentially employers) would use the services in an integrated manner.
Locally, many county and city employees have felt the effects of such a constrained network. Jackson County and the City of Pascagoula joined the “Premier Health” network operated by Singing River Health System. This network limits choices for providers to only those with privileges at Singing River. You want to have heart surgery at Ochsner or Providence? You’ll pay for 50% of it. Would you like a choice of specialists? There is no hope of affording it on the meager wages paid by the county and city. SRHS employees are also subject to this stripped-down plan.
This however is a great deal for Singing River. They have a captive customer base with no hope of leaving the network to go elsewhere. Indeed, SRHS employees accounted for approximately 3% of the hospital’s revenue.
Potential customers of MAN would be (current TPA is also listed):
- Chevron – United Healthcare
- Ingalls – Blue Cross Anthem
- Singing River Health System – Lockard & Williams, Premier Health network
- Jackson County – Lockard & Williams, Premier Health network
- City of Gautier – Fox Everett
- City of Pascagoula – Lockard & Williams
- Mississippi State & School Employees’ Health Plan – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi
- Various casinos and other large employers
While the mission and goals of MAN may be similarly aligned with Singing River’s, it is particularly galling that SRHS has never cut ties to Chris Anderson.
SRHS Watch has been informed that there are upcoming legislative proposals that might benefit MAN. As various bills are submitted in the next legislative session, ask yourself, “who’s the MAN in this relationship?”
Great post Watch. Does anybody in Jackson County really think Chris Anderson has not been in contact with his co-conspirators within the SRHS? Kevin Holland has stated he has not communicated with Chris Anderson since the day he left.Who believes that? All know Kevin Holland was his Bulldog boy for years.Chris Anderson even pushed the perfectly capable Ocean Springs Hospital administrator, who ran a solid and profitable operation, into retirement just so he could get his Bulldog boy into control. They then implemented those world class failed policies that we can now see the results of. What about his long term relationship with those old timers on the BOT? Does anybody really think that from the day Chris Anderson jumped off of the SRHS financial train wreck he stopped calling his old hypnotized buddy trustee Michael J. Heidelberg? I would also bet he has been kept well informed of all that is happening legally by his long time lawyer Roy Williams. Maybe they all still gather in George County at Roy’s Ranch that was probably paid for with money extracted from the SRHS .These guys still have at least one thing in common to talk about and that is how to keep the truth hidden from the public.We can only hope one day the facts will all be laid bare and these men will be proven to be nothing more than greedy,power hungry liars.This would confirm what most already believe.
Great topic SRHS Watch. As someone who once saw the system and network closer than I do now (thankfully), I can tell you Anderson was the self proclaimed “visionary” of this MAN network. It was all part of this mesmerizing buzzword program “Clinical Integration” or “CI” Anderson and company called it for short. Amazingly, to this day, other health organizations are also pursuing this costly unproven concept which is impossible for even all of those brainwashed into it to understand. Ask someone to explain clinical integration: it is like a medical version of a plan on how to make energy without paying for energy. It kind of sounds good on the surface, but no one can explain it in detail. Anderson was just going to do it anyway, in even grander style, “world class” and all out world scale fabulous style.
I will say that you have one or two facts that might need correcting, while I cannot verify today what is happening since I have moved on, when I was closer to it, I know for a fact CFO Bond was against it and raised so much serious hell about it being a waste of money and he literally pushed the now Vanderbilt guy Morgan right off the edge to get them to scrap it. Morgan had formed some new entity to marry up with MAN (probably no relation to the gay marriage legislation) called Kinetic Health Care, and Bond made them abort it, thus putting Morgan out of a job – until he went back to work with Anderson. Bond told several doctors, some of whom disagreed – at the time, and they may not now – that it was a waste of money, or at least money that shouldn’t be spent by SRHS at the time, and they needed to get out of CI and the MAN. I am almost positive they did get out of both when Bond became CFO and went on the tirade about it. I would be extremely shocked if he let them get back in if he had any say in it.
What is further ridiculous is that now Anderson has rekindled his “MAN relationship” with Morgan by using other people’s money again – apparently Vanderbilt’s, to perpetuate his MAN Presidency. Does anyone at Baptist read any of this? If so you would think they would shed themselves of this most MANiacal egomaniac. That Anderson is still employed and spending other people’s money simply defies belief. You are right it is galling, and appalling. MAN oh MAN!
Who is Chris Morgan and what in the world is clinical integration? Is it true that they kicked Dr. Jamal’s group out of network?
According to sources Drs. Jamal and Wierzbicka dropped their privileges at Singing River, which is a requirement to participate in the Premier Health network. The City of Pascagoula and county both negotiated a separate agreement with them (outside of Premier).
Ahhhh. Thanks for clarifying.
Chris Morgan Linkedin excerpt:
Vice President of Clinical Integration
Singing River Health System
April 2012 – June 2014 (2 years 3 months)Gautier, MS
Led Singing River Health System’s Clinical Integration, Managed Care and Community Benefits services. Chief orchestrator responsible for creating and implementing SRHS’s and Mississippi’s first CI network (Kinetic Healthcare, LLC). Partnered with 90 SRHS employed providers as well as 250 members of SRHS’s expanded medical staff to create SRHS’s Clinical Integration program and shared this vision with over 2,700 SRHS team members. In Managed Care, oversaw negotiations, contracting and compliance with all major commercial, self-funded and governmental contracts. Also oversaw the management team for Premier PHO which is comprised of 325 providers and ensured successful completion of all delegated credentialing, enrollments and applications necessary to participate in insurance programs. Led SRHS’s Community Benefits Services which included bi-annual Community Benefits Survey, Schedule H and 990 requirements. Utilized survey results to develop multi-disciplinary teams comprised of SRHS, community business leaders and national coalitions who focused on improving the health and availability of care and resources for residents of Jackson County, MS.
Of the mentioned “Kinetic Healthcare, LLC” not a trace was found at the MSSOS website, nor was anything found on the same or a number of similar names in connection with Mississippi anything anywhere on the internet. What is the name of this “Kinetic” entity and what state was it filed in?
How much money was spent on this? What doctors received money and how much? Is there a product? Or is this just money wasted to enrich others? Did Kevin continue this until Lee put the brakes on it? What kind of experience does Morgan have? Is it true he was a VP and had no direct reports for over a year?
This is a good thread to pull!
I was appointed to the SRHS BOT in February 2015. Your post was the first time I heard of MAN. When I read it I started asking questions. What I have found out is that MAN was started as something of a lobbying group consisting of nine non-profit hospital systems across the state. I do not know what it turned into or what its function is now. Though MAN was incorporated on May 20, 2014, Chris Anderson started it long before his departure from SRHS, though I am not sure exactly when.
Because SRHS was a member at the time, Kevin Holland attended some meetings of MAN between March 2014, when he was appointed CEO, and September 2014, when SRHS ended any and all involvement with it. In September 2014 SRHS contributed $1000 to MAN, just before we pulled out. One reason that SRHS pulled out was that it was thought not to be in the best interest of the system to be involved in any organization headed by Chris Anderson. So if you have something other than unsubstantiated rumor to support your statement that any of our executives have any involvement with Anderson, I would love to hear it. From what I have been able to find out, nothing could be farther from the truth. We also got out of MAN because all attention needed to be on our struggling system. It did not make sense to expend time, energy or other resources on anything else, including lobbying organizations.
Your statement that we have been sending money to MAN for months is not accurate. Your statement that this was done with full knowledge of Holland, Bond and the BOT is not accurate. With the exception of one payment in the amount of $1000 a year ago, it did not happen. I never even heard of MAN until today. SRHS has no ties to Chris Anderson. Your statements to the contrary are not accurate. I ask that you correct these inaccurate statements.
I have done all that I can do to make sure that what I am telling you is correct. If you have information that proves that I am wrong about any of it I urge you to share it with me. Public dissemination of information, should at least, come with the obligation to make sure that the information disseminated is accurate. If, in the future, you care to contact me I will be happy to assist in checking the factual accuracy of anything that you wish to report. I have been, and will continue to be, more than willing to answer any question that you, or anybody else has, if I can.
Scott
Pingback: Comment Bump: SRHS Trustee Scott Taylor on MAN | SRHS Watch
Kinetics was the name they choose to be the clinical integration portion. It’s hard for me to explain but I will try to put it in layman’s terms on a different post. Few of us were thoroughly educated on it and thought it was very costly
As far as MAN Mr Taylor you may want to pull payments and see statements. I do not have the same level of access as you, however I feel confident my information was correct. And it was a $1500 payments every quarter And Srhs has always built on clauses in terminate contracts at will and Holland could have easily terminated the MAN without penalty and chose not to do so. In fact when we questioned him about this he flat out told us to “just do your job and I’ll do mine”.
So, If one is trusting what ceo is telling them…. Beware. He still tells his parents he doesn’t consume alcoholic beverages and believe me, that is indeed a bold face lie. Too many of us have indulged in adult beverages with him on vacations , at games , after meetings and I will not go into detail on here at the establishments that we have all been to as a group when out of town
Consider your sources as well Mr Taylor and I say that not as smart a$$ but as a former friend who was burned and turned and burned again crispy
At the risk of offending you with anonymous horseshit Scott, was MAN ever affiliated with SRHS or were they instead affiliated with an SRHS entity? This little game of lacking full disclosure and a play on words tends to get old. One can only surmise because of your quick response that SRHS Sr. Admin once again told you what to say and you willingly posted it on social media like a parrot. It’s a shame that you cannot or will not investigate this on your own. It’s also a shame that you pick the softballs to swing at and run from the real challenges. Throw us a bone with some meat on it!
I will look into this. Please understand that there are 24 hours in a day and that I am one man. I am interested in understanding past failures in the interest that they not be repeated. I am more interested in hearing from anyone that has any ideas on how we can improve our business going forward.
I think that, for the most part, SRHS WATCH has done a good job bringing to light and discussing issues relevant to our struggles. I do not want to clutter it unnecessarily. A good way to communicate with me is through the email address that I set up for that purpose. It is [email protected]. My phone number is 228-875-0424. Anyone who communicates with me by any means is free to share the substance of those communications as they wish. I will honor requests for anonymity.
I am more than a little eager to address attacks on my integrity, such as from RETIRE? below. I will, however, do that only face to face with those bringing those attacks.
Scott
Thank you Mr. Taylor for having the guts to to wade into the morass of social media and try to help this situation move forward.
On 9/17, Scott Taylor wrote:
“I am more interested in hearing from anyone that has any ideas on how we can improve our business going forward.”
Are you really? Because if you are….you must acknowledge and deal with the “elephant in the room” (a.k.a. the need for leadership change).
As long as there is no significant top leadership change, the unrest will continue. Given the shear number of “side” scandals the past year, and the catastrophic handling of the pension issue, there is almost no chance for reconciliation with the County, retirees, employees and former employees (such as the ones posting on this site) who are outraged by a perceived lack of credibility, rampant cronyism and a steady stream of often bizarre and opaque issues (the workman’s comp and MAN issues being only the lastest two) . Fair or not, becuase so much has happened on the watches of leaders who still remain entrenched, SRHS will continue to alienate itself from the very folks who might be able to help “improve the business going forward”. Until there is measureable leadership change, SRHS is simply chasing its tail.