MA Nurses Say Partners HealthCare Is Offshoring $100M in Caymans as ‘Slush Fund’ UPDATED
Friday, May 31, 2019
A report issued by the Massachusetts Nurses Association charges that officials at Partners HealthCare and other leading hospitals are offshoring more than $1.6 billion in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens.
According to MNA, Partners Healthcare offshored $100,909,744 in its most recent fiscal year tax filings.
MNA is calling on Massachusetts lawmakers to pass legislation requiring financial transparency from hospitals and the returning of excess profits and CEO pay to the public good.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTPresently, Partners HealthCare is moving to acquire Rhode Island's second-largest hospital group — Care New England, who owns Women & Infants, Butler and Kent Hospitals.
In addition, Partners Healthcare is acquiring a New Hampshire hospital group. Exeter Health Resources, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Wentworth-Douglass Hospital have signed “a letter of intent to explore opportunities to develop a new regional network to collaboratively deliver health care within the Seacoast Region.“ The new combined entity will be a subsidiary of Partners HealthCare’s Mass General Hospital.
Partners HealthCare defends the offshoring. In a statement provided to GoLocal on Friday, Partners HealthCare's spokesman Rich Copp said, "Once again, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) leadership is distorting the truth, which is that these funds are not profits but fiscally responsible financial reserves required by law for insurance purposes. Many hospitals are self-insured for medical malpractice coverage and general liability insurance, a well-established cost-savings practice that is common among large US organizations and businesses versus buying commercial coverage."
Copp added, "These self-insurance entities, and the funding needed to operate them, are traditionally held in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and certain other jurisdictions with appropriate laws and their activity is transparent and reported to the IRS. They are not secret. By reducing overhead through self-insurance, Massachusetts hospitals are better positioned to put their limited resources towards patient care and services that are the heart of their mission, to the benefit of patients, employees and the public."
Nurses Call Out Offshore Accounts
“We can improve our health care system by shining a light on hospital finances, limiting excessive CEO pay and ensuring that the public has a stronger voice in shaping how our health care dollars are spent,” said Karen Coughlin, a 35-year RN from Mansfield and Vice President of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
MNA spokesperson David Schildmeier told GoLocal that Partners HealthCare "needs to be stopped."
"Before they close a hospital or a service they need to bring the $100 million back from a tax haven. They closed half the detox beds at Faulker Hospital and would have closed all of them if [MNA] had not made a stink. They close the beds in the midst of the biggest overdose epidemic in history,” said Schildmeier.
“[Partners] closed the pediatric unit at Cooley Dickinson and made people drive to Springfield citing costs,” said Schildmeier. The extra travel amounts to about 30 miles.
The MNA argues in its report that the offshore funds “are taxpayer funds from Medicare and Medicaid.” The report cites 65.6% of Partners HealthCare’s revenue is from Medicare, Medicaid, and state funds. The data is from Partners HealthCare 2016 tax filings.
“Partners is busy trying to expand all over the world and cutting services in Massachusetts,” said Schildmeier.
Massachusetts Legislation Introduced
The Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act (S. 714/H. 1144) introduced in Massachusetts requires hospitals to disclose financial holdings and profits, including money kept in offshore accounts. It will also claw back excessive profits and CEO pay and return that money to the public good through a newly created Medicaid Reimbursement Enhancement Fund. Massachusetts hospitals are both largely non-profit organizations and publicly funded through tax dollars.
This was updated at 10:53 AM on 5/31/19.
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