At last week’s meeting of the Mendocino Coast Healthcare District Board, directors discussed a new website, last year’s minutes, and a letter concerning the possibility of Adventist hospitals no longer taking Anthem insurance.
With a packed agenda, one member of the public expressed her gratitude for the board’s attentive demeanor. “A few of us have actually placed bets on whether Mr. Redding would be playing his guitar while he thought he was on mute again,” said Jenny Shattuck. “Because we found this, and his actions, just beyond disturbing, that the board was literally discussing the future of our ambulance, and the future of our healthcare.”
Objections to directors’ conduct were not limited to members of the public. This became clear when Directors John Redding and Sara Spring expressed their points of view about who was responsible for preparing last year’s minutes, which appeared on the new website without full board approval. “Director Spring’s position is that she was unwilling or unable to do the minutes,” Redding stated; “and furthermore, that she did want anyone else to do the minutes; that any such attempt was illegitimate.” As Spring attempted to interrupt, Redding added, “Those minutes are eighteen months old. I’m not finished!” he exclaimed, as Spring shouted, “John, I will say to you again: I never got the zooms. You had them. I did not. I’m not gonna let you sit here and say I didn’t do something I could not do.”
Chair Jessica Grinberg shed some light on the migration of the website, and how the minutes ended up there without board approval. “The minutes isn’t the point,” she objected, breaking into her colleagues’ discussion. “The point is the migration of the website, of what was in the past to the current, and during the migration, items were added that hadn’t been brought towards the board yet, or voted on, and the integrity of our new migration put the cart before the horse because items were submitted to the public, not noted as draft, not vetted through us, but was posted…but I’m just acknowledging that our migration had some missteps.”
The old website redirected users just as they were looking for the agenda and the link to the meeting. Some reported difficulties, some said it was easy to find, and one member of the public requested that the entire board resign over a special meeting that may or not have been noticed properly. The root of the confusion was not immediately known, but Grinberg said, “It may be a payment issue. I recall we’re due to pay that domain.”
The board decided to pull the minutes from the website, which led to community input about the parliamentary procedure. “You do not take public input on the minutes?” Malcolm MacDonald inquired. “I want to make clear?”
“Correct,” Grinberg confirmed.
“Wow,” MacDonald replied, as Grinberg asked for a roll call. “Wow. Just wow.”
One member of the public suggested creating a dedicated zoom link for board meetings at the new website, so users could use the same link for each recurring meeting. “I go crazy, looking for zoom links,” she explained.
Redding inquired after the speaker’s name, and she said, “Hello. I’m Chess on Tuesday. First name: Chess. Last name: on Tuesday.”
“Chess. As in the game, chess?” Redding inquired, whereupon Chess on Tuesday obliged him by spelling it out.
After an hour and a half, the board wrapped up the discussion about the website and the minutes. Without further ado, they moved on to the topic of a letter, drafted by Redding, about the negotiations between Adventist and Anthem. Judy Leach, the president of Adventist Health Mendocino Coast, gave a few hints about the negotiations. “We are not choosing to terminate,” she said. “It’s just the contract that has now come up for renewal needs further conversations. It is one negotiation. There are different rates that are happening, actually, even per market. So that’s why we are discussing rates with them. I don’t have details about what that looks like, but I will tell you it is one negotiation that’s going on. There are different rates in different areas.”
The letter under discussion laid out the financial hardship that would ensue if the hospital stops accepting insurance from Anthem.
The final sentence stated that if the negotiations are not successful, “the Board of Directors would like to immediately begin talks with Anthem for the purpose of creating a one-year exception for our remote community, recognizing that our circumstances differ significantly from other hospitals and clinics in the Adventist Health Network.”
This passage in particular drew the ire of Jade Tippett, a member of the public. “The tone of this letter is wrong,” he began. “I agree with the chair that it is appropriate for the board to write a letter supporting Adventist in the negotiation. But I’ve done negotiations, a lot of them. And if a subset of the organization that I was representing came in looking for a side deal, it would totally undercut the negotiation that I was doing. And that’s what this letter is doing. It’s asking for a side deal for the hospital in the middle of the negotiations. It’s utterly inappropriate.”
The board agreed to have Grinberg and Director Amy McColley modify the letter and bring it back to the full board.
The hospital and the insurance provider were originally planning to renew their contract by mid-July, but granted themselves a two-week extension.
The extension expired yesterday.
Ms. Reith, while I appreciate you covering the District’s meeting, please research the history behind these actions. For example, the Secretary did not prepare minutes for most of 18 months, which is basically illegal and nullifies actions taken but not memorialized. The Board was under fire as a result so we went about creating those minutes and a website on which to host them. Those minutes were posted in anticipation of the Board reviewing and approving them. Not a hiccup.
You also attributed the question directed to “chess” to me but it was the Board chair asking the question.
Lastly, the guitar playing is a bit overhyped wouldn’t you say? It was at the end of a very long meeting and I picked up the guitar to calm myself. I regret people heard it but to conclude that I don’t take my responsibilities is a huge stretch. Check out the work I did on the District’s finances to see for yourself. Lastly, the Grand Jury investigated our finances and found no fault. I’d be happy to sit with you for an interview. John Redding
was it not in fact you what had the zooms squirreled away for your own pleasure this WHOLE TIME
The assertion that ” the Grand Jury investigated our finances and found no fault” appears to be unjustified. Apparently, last term’s Grand Jury did not issue a report in response to your complaint but that doesn’t clearly justify the conclusion that there was no finding of fault concerning the district’s finances. At best, it could be inferred that your particular allegations of “misconduct” were without merit but that doesn’t extend to all of the healthcare district’s finances, which seem opaque and lacking in transparency based on numerous public comments and objections at your meetings. This seems like classic spin doctoring.
Don’t believe everything you think John Redding, for you may soon be quite unpleasantly surprised by your ASSumptions. How about you get the financial house of the district in order (your JOB as Treasurer) before you start crowing?
Ms. Reith, you also attribute comments about the “integrity” of the migration to Ms. Grinberg when it was Ms. McColley who made those comments. JR