Kilmartin Lawyer Who Approved St. Joseph’s Sale to CharterCARE Leaves AG After 23 Years
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
For nearly 23 years, Genevieve Martin served in the Attorney General’s office and most recently as an Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Insurance Advocacy Unit, but just two weeks after St. Joseph Health Services pension fund went into bankruptcy, Martin is out at the Attorney General’s office and she is not talking about her departure.
She signed off on the transfer of assets of St. Joseph and Roger Williams Medical Center in the sale to CharterCare in 2014.
The sale left the employees' retirement fund an "orphan" and within just three years of the sale, the fund was bankrupt.
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Kilmartin refused to respond to questions about Martin’s departure or her role in approving the St. Joseph sale.
According to Martin’s professional bio, while she was at the Attorney General’s office her role was:
I advocated for citizens through representation of their interests at public rate hearings to review rate changes requested by insurers, reviewed proposed legislation involving insurance issues, reviewed and provided comments regarding proposed insurance and healthcare regulation, drafted legislation, provided assistance to consumers with insurance related matters and regarding other issues as requested by the Attorney General, including proposed hospital and other healthcare mergers and other charitable trust matters.
A GoLocal review has found that Kilmartin, who is statutorily responsible for a key element of the Hospital Conversion Act, failed to protect the pension assets in the transaction.
The law is very specific to the responsibilities of Kilmartin and his office, stating, “The department of attorney general [is] to preserve and protect public and charitable assets in reviewing both hospital conversions which involve for-profit corporations and hospital conversions which include only not-for-profit corporations.”
At the time of the agreement in 2014, Kilmartin said, “The transacting parties have worked diligently to provide regulators with the necessary documentation and information throughout this review process to make this decision, a decision I believe is in the best interest of Rhode Island’s healthcare marketplace, the community, the employees, and most importantly, the patients.”
Kilmartin said in his statement, “Conducting a hospital conversion review requires the commitment of a substantial amount of resources for the Office of Attorney General. I commend my staff for the time and careful consideration put into this review process.”
Kilmartin May Face Wistow in the Future
Last Friday, GoLocal was first to report that Max Wistow has been appointed Special Counsel in the St. Joseph Health Services pension fund bankruptcy at the request of receiver Stephan Del Sesto. Judge Brian Stern approved the request in an emergency status hearing at Superior Court.
In the hearing Stern also granted the receivers requests to continue the full funding of monthly pension payments to retirees through February 1, 2018. And, additionally, provided Del Sesto and thus, Wistow with full subpoena powers.
More than sixty retirees, lawyers for interested parties attended the hearing which was moved to a larger courtroom. Stern also asked Del Sesto to create a committee which would include retirees to be included in the receivership and recovery of asset process. Stern also urged to, sooner rather than later, organize a "town hall" to present information to the nearly 3,000 impacted retirees who are now threatened with a 40 percent cut to their benefits.
Wistow had helped Rhode Island recover more than $60 million of the state's $75 million investment in 38 Studios. He was appointed by then-Governor Lincoln Chafee.
Late Tuesday night the Attorney General's spokeswoman Amy Kempe said, "After 24 years of commendable service, Gen Martin retired from the office. Her decision to retire had been long planned, informing the office of her intention to do so as far back as February 2017. Her last day was September 1."
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