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Officials look to cut PERS at Regional
Published Thursday, July 23, 2009
NATCHEZ — Faced with a new state-mandated hospital tax and the rising cost of providing healthcare, hospital, state and county leaders met Wednesday to discuss cutting one major expense at Natchez Regional Medical Center — PERS.
Eliminating the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System for hospital employees is currently being explored as a cost-saving measure at the hospital.
The PERS system requires hospital employees to contribute 7 percent of their income to the retirement program while the hospital makes a 12 percent contribution to the retirement account.
And for NRMC that cost, approximately $1.6 million per year, is a great one to bear.
“The bottom line is we can’t afford this,” said Dan Bland chairman of NRMC board of trustees.
Bland said PERS payments combined with a newly-mandated hospital tax make cuts to PERS a necessity.
Natchez Regional’s Chief Administrating Officer Bruce Buchanan said the new hospital tax could cost Regional up to $900,000 this fiscal year.
“It’s going to be a tremendous expense for us,” Buchanan said.
To help lessen the impact of that tax, the majority of the Adams County Board of Supervisors voiced support for either eliminating PERS for Regional’s incoming employees or totally eliminating the plan.
Supervisor Darryl Grennell said while eliminating the retirement program likely would be upsetting for some, it’s necessary.
“The hospital just cannot afford it,” Grennell said. “It’s that simple. It’s not something we want.”
Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter said while he supports the cuts, local leaders should look beyond the hospital.
“(Hospital employees) did not ask to get in this situation. We should be looking at making cuts in our PERS also,” Felter said making cuts for those in county government. “It’s the fair thing to do.”
Buchanan said since 45 percent of the hospital’s employees do not work at Regional for the eight years it requires to for them to become vested in the program, once an employee leaves they’re able to take their contribution but the hospital’s 12 percent match goes directly to PERS.
Buchanan said if the hospital is successfully able to eliminate PERS, no one with money in the system will lose any money.
“That money is safe and it isn’t going anywhere,” he said.
But eliminating PERS won’t be easy.
Natchez Regional Attorney Walter Brown said the hospital tried to eliminate PERS unsuccessfully in 2004 and 2006.
Brown said eliminating PERS would take a legislative act and approval from PERS.
“I think if we got legislative approval, PERS would follow along,” Brown said.
And while the hospital was unable to eliminate PERS in the past, this time could be different, Brown said.
Brown said the hospital’s current bankruptcy and new tax problems could help to persuade the legislature and PERS to let the hospital out of its contract.
“I think this could work to our advantage,” he said.
And while the Brown is making plans to have PERS brought up in the 2010 Legislative session, the timing is critical, Bland said.
“It’s now or never,” Bland said.
Bland said it’s only been in recent months that the hospital has become financially stable and able to “tread water” and the new tax coupled with PERS can hurt the hospital.
“We can’t pay for all of this,” he said. “We just don’t have that much money.”
And support for the elimination of the program goes beyond local leadership.
Reps. Robert Johnson and Sam Mims and Sen. Bob Dearing all voiced support for some form of PERS elimination.
Comments
Posted by natashakubelikov (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 12:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
They county beared ole Scott,he milked the county out of millions with his bag of bull.
Posted by rushinghjr (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 12:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Tough "Row to Hoe"! The CBS wants to eliminate the 12% contribution of the employees retirement, while "They" want to levee a Recreation Tax on all the taxpayers of the County! Seems strange? It is really nice when someone else spends your taxes! Think about it and vote NO!
Posted by darylwalker (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 5:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Screwing people out of their retirement is definitely not a way to bring more qualified health care employees to our only publicly run hospital. They're county employees just like every other person that works for the county. Why should they be discriminated against just because the officials at NRMC couldn't handle their money correctly in the past? I understand they're needing to look at ways to keep afloat, but this isn't something that should be done. At the VERY least, they should 'grandfather' in those that are already vested into the system. If they don't, all your older, more experience, employees are going to leave to seek employment elsewhere so they can finish out their years with PERS.
I respect Spanky for speaking up and stating they should be looking into their own retirement as well if they're looking at doing this to the employess of the hospital.
Posted by jrn59 (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 6:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Why would any one select this hospital as their employer? Where is President Obama when he is really needed? Why not make this hospital into a charity run facility and let the uninsured go there? Maybe just maybe, the president would leave OUR health care alone......
Posted by beammeupscotty (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 6:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It is the pay scale that is breaking not only this hospital but all industry in the United States. Top level management has an inflated idea of their value to the bottom line.
Posted by northpearl (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 7:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Walter Brown is a huge PERS supporter and a supporter of the welfare state. PERS is one of the reasons that NRMC is in the financial shape it is in.
Posted by NAMVET (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 8:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
IF THEY WANT TO CUT THE "FAT",THEN WHY NOT START AT THE TOP????? HOW ABOUT THAT OVERPAID, UNDERQUALIFIED, "CEO"??? THINK THEY COULD CUT HIS PAY AND OTHER PERKS??? ASK YOUR SUPERVISORS ABOUT HIM AND ALL OF HIS "BIG IDEAS" !!!!
Posted by LOVESNATCHEZ (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 8:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is a simple fix: get rid of SCOTT PHILLIPS AND HIS COMPANY AT A COST OF 1.2 MILLION A YEAR AND YOU HAVE YOUR $900,000.00!!! While we're at it, get rid of the entire board. They are about to put local doctors out of business by sending x-rays to Hattiesburg to be read; how much sense does that make? This was once a fine hospital, and still could be if the B.O.S. would do their damn job and step in and handle business, but wait, they can't handle what they've got! It's amazing to me that when Bill Mitchell was the administrator, Regional had more money than they knew what to do with; now we have management companies literally screwing us out of millions of dollars and noone does anything about it. I'm telling all taxpayers, you need to pay attention to this matter. Call your supervisor and tell him to get off his butt and handle business. I am tired of the lies, the smoke, the whole coverup that is actually happening at NRMC.
Posted by sandyman7 (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 8:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree...DUMP PHILLIPS AND HIS COMPANY and you will have the money to keep peer's..But thats not going to happen.
They'll get rid of the PEERS hospital benfits and push hard for a "softball" COMPLEX....SOME HOW THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.!!!!
Posted by chuckydaone (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 9:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
PERS is not the villain in this scenario. Rising healthcare cost and the use of the emergency room by the uninsured as a "primary" source for service are major contributors. Other decisions by the hospital board the the supervisors also play a role. For those who complain about taxes, please remember that while individuals work for a living in order to provide for themselves, our government (federal, state, local) has only taxes, fines, and fees at its disposal to raise revenue needed to provide the essential services we want. I don't like taxes but I do like police and fire protecton, decent streets to drive on, etc.
Posted by JustAPerson (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I can see the mechanic with the disabling device headed this way. It is gonna get nasty.
Posted by itsmemame (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 10:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The financial trouble started with Quorum. I SUSPECT that our leaders saw a way to pad their pocketbooks when they hired a management company to begin with. And, boy, did they hire some bloodsuckers!
Posted by chazbo4 (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 10:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
the supervisors had better get their heads out the sand. cutting pers to current employees is NOT AN OPTION.these people took these lower paying jobs because of the retirement.my wife has been at the hosp. for 15 years and only makes $11.00 per hour.if you want to cut pers to future employees,fine, but they know this on the front end not after the fact.get rid of the $100,000.00 per month CEO.and not employee benefits! whats next all county employees pers benefits to be cut. Dont say it cant happen.Handle it at the polls in 18 months and also remember your current state representatives. oh and by the way dont they have retirement? How bout we cut theirs out!!
Posted by JustAPerson (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 11:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Chaz is right. If they cut the PERS from 1 county run facility, all they have to do is say we cant balance the county budget so we have to make cuts. Oh look we took the hospital retirement so we can take county employees also. They will say it is this or layoffs. Which will it be. I hate this for regional as I know they are running tight now with employees losses.
Posted by natashakubelikov (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 9:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Obama is going for socialized medicine,same as Canada. Look it up,it ain,t pretty. Plus he,s going to put taxes on things we never thought of and double tax us to death. That,s what you new pres is gonna do. Green house taxes,coal plant tax,penalty taxes on anything that creates electricity that burns,and the politicians are gonna make millions putting their inlaws and outlaws over all of the hogwash to protect the environment.
Posted by natashakubelikov (anonymous) on July 23, 2009 at 9:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
SCOTT PHILLIPS AND HIS COMPANY AT A COST OF 1.2 MILLION A YEAR
Why anyone pay him and his company anything unless they were getting kickbacks. They arrested a dozen or so in New Jersey today. A big per cent of politicans are on the take and crooked as snakes.
Posted by NAMVET (anonymous) on July 24, 2009 at 10:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
VOTE FOR OBAMA !!!! HE IS IN FOR "CHANGE" SPELLED CHACHANG!!!!!!
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