As debt deepens and auditors arrive, Adair County hospital CEO resigns and is apparently escorted from the building

The CEO of Westlake Regional Hospital in Columbia "resigned Monday morning and was apparently escorted out of the hospital," reports the Adair County Community Voice. Rusty Tungate "and eight others turned in their resignations just one day before a consulting firm is scheduled to review the hospital's finances and operations."

Last week, the hospital's board hired Spectrum Health Partners LLC "to provide a complete review of the hospital’s operations and finances," beginning tomorrow, the Community Voice reports. Board Chairman James Evans told the newspaper that the firm will help find an interim administrator, probably by Wednesday.

"Evans would not elaborate on discussions with Tungate prior to his resignation," the Voice reports. "Tungate and the hospital renewed their contract in November. Tungate was serving as administrator to Westlake and has contracts with two other hospitals. His salary for services to Westlake was $195,000." (Read more)

UPDATE, Feb. 2: Tungate and other administrators are part of a team that also provides management for Jane Todd Crawford Memorial Hospital in Greensburg and Casey County Hospital in Liberty. Tungate will remain CEO of both hospitals, Larry Rowell reports in the Casey County News. Tungate told Rowell that the Adair County board was no longer willing to share management with the other hospitals, and that he is the longest-tenured hospital CEO in Kentucky. (Read more)

In a story in last week's Voice, Editor-Publisher Sharon Burton quoted Evans as saying, "We're losing $500,000 a year and we're deep in debt." The hospital recently borrowed $12.5 million. Adair County owns the hospital, and the board members are appointed by the county judge-executive with approval of the fiscal court. Judge-Executive Ann Melton referred to the consultants' work as a partial "audit."

Two bills would encourage, protect whistleblowers

Two proposed bills would serve to crack down on fraudulent health care claims and make it easier for employees to blow the whistle on illegal activity.

State Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London, (photo, right) has sponsored Senate Bill 11, which would increase damages and penalties against wrongdoers and prohibits retaliation against employees who assist in prosecution. It would also allow an employee who "works for a Medicaid provider or contractor to turn over evidence to prosecutors and receive a portion of the money recovered," The Lexington Herald-Leader's Beth Musgrave reports.

House Bill 4, sponsored by House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, (photo, left) proposes similar action, likewise protecting whistleblowers and paying "some of the proceeds of the action being distributed to the person successfully bringing the action." The consequences as proposed in Stumbo's bill would be more widespread, however. "I want to see this used not just in (Medicaid), as the Senate is proposing, but anywhere fraud with state dollars is taking place," Stumbo said.

Almost two dozen states have their own false claims acts, including Tennessee and Indiana. Attorney General Jack Conway has expressed some concerns about the proposals. (Read more)

Jobs increasing in health services industry

Though Kentucky has been hit hard by the recession, certain industries, including health care, are hiring. State unemployment trends show educational and health services have grown 20.5 percent since 2001.

"With the population maturing — not just in Kentucky and in Fayette County but elsewhere — you're going to continue to see health care as a growing industry," said Ron Crouch, director of research and statistics for the state Office of Employment and Training.

The Lexington Herald-Leader's Scott Sloan reports all of Lexington's hospitals are expanding and large, flourishing companies like ACS and Pacific Pulmonary "are capitalizing on service related to health care."

Professional and business services also grew — up 15.2 percent between 2001 and the second quarter of 2010. Toyota has resumed hiring, Cincinnati-based grocery Kroger is growing and technology companies are creating more jobs. (Read more)

Effect of new health care law on premiums debatable

Neither President Barack Obama nor Republicans who oppose him are entirely accurate about whether or not the new health care law will lower premiums. Obama insists it will, Republicans say otherwise.

Politico found Obama's claims to be somewhat of a stretch. A new report showed middle-class families could save up to $2,300 in premiums, and small businesses could save up to $350 for each family. "But that's compared to what their premiums would have been without the law," reporter David Nather determined. "There are provisions that might help some people and businesses pay less for their premiums — just not everyone."

For example, only businesses with 10 or less full-time employees who earn wages of less $25,000 get the full 35 percent credit. Premiums may be "significantly lower" in high-risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions, "but they're still expensive," Nather reports.

Republican claims that premiums have already risen are not entirely true either. "There have been a series of premium increases by insurers across the country, but it's not always easy to tell what's really due to the law and what's not," Nather writes. Regarding its request to increase premiums by 56 percent for people who opt to buy insurance on their own, Blue Shield of California stated the increase has little to do with the new law. "These rates reflect trends that were building long before health reform," officials said.

"The bottom line is that the law's early provisions may be pushing some people's rates slightly higher, but they're probably not a big factor," Nather concludes. (Read more)

Health-related proposals target obesity, smoking; none are expected to pass this session

Though several health-related bills have been introduced in the Kentucky General Assembly, including ones that target smoking and obesity, legislators do not expect sweeping overhauls this year.

"I don't look for too much to change during this time," state Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, told The Courier-Journal's Laura Ungar. The short session and the fact that it's not a budget year are apparently factors.

Perhaps the most discussed proposal, House Bill 193, would prohibit cigarette use in all enclosed public places and enclosed places of employment, including restaurants, bars and nightclubs. It also bans smoking within a "reasonable" distance outside of public places and work places.

State Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Burlington, looks to target childhood obesity with a series of bills that would promote fitness and would measure children's body-mass indices, a height-weight ratio measurement. For more on her efforts, click here.

Making cold medication pseudoephedrine only available by prescription is another health-related proposal with proponents saying it would vastly curb the prevalence of methamphetamine labs in the state. Two similar bills have been proposed to this end, one by state Rep. Linda Belcher, D-Shepherdsville, another by state Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London. (Read more)

Skyrocketing prescription drug abuse is subject for examination by Kentucky's two biggest newspapers

The uphill battle against prescription drug abuse across the state was extensively explored in Kentucky's two largest newspapers this weekend.

In their series titled "Prescription for Tragedy," which continues today, The Courier-Journal's Laura Ungar and Emily Hagedorn examined the effects of drug addiction in Bell County, which has the highest number of drug-related deaths in the state. Yet, as prescription drug abuse continues to rise statewide, funding to fight addiction has been slashed and treatment can be difficult to get, Hagedorn and Ungar report. (C-J photo illustration)

The Lexington Herald-Leader looks at how some counties are fighting back by drawing up ordinances that ban "pill mills," pain management clinics that "churn out large amounts of prescriptions for pain and anti-anxiety pills," Bill Estep and Dori Hjalmarson report.

The C-J reports 978 Kentuckians died in 2009 from prescription drug overdoses, up from 403 in 2000. For more state- and nation-wide numbers, click here. Bell County is the hardest hit in the state, with about 54 prescription drug-related deaths per 100,000 people. The high death rate is attributed to several factors, including "few good jobs, little for young people to do and easy access to nearby states where prescriptions are easier to get," Ungar and Hagedorn report.

While the problem continues to grow, petty crimes, such as theft, have increased with it. Yet, the funds to fight the abuse have decreased in Bell County. That is the case statewide, with funding cut from the state Office of Drug Control Policy and Operation UNITE, which was formed to fight chronic drug abuse. Moreover, Kentucky's family and juvenile drug courts were eliminated last year to save money.

A few Eastern Kentucky counties are fighting back by passing ordinances that ban certain types of pain clinics from opening or continuing to operate, the Herald-Leader reports. Carter, Greenup, Knott and Morgan counties have already approved their bans. Residents of Johnson and Owsley counties are asking for more regulation.

To some degree, the bans are put in place to send a message to doctors who are considering opening up shop in these areas. Carter County did not have any pain clinics when its ban was passed, but one businesses later shied away from opening in the county after learning about the law.

After crackdowns on pill mills in Kentucky in the early 2000s, Kentuckians traveled to Florida, which had no prescription-tracking system, to obtain pills and later sell them. In one raid in South Florida, Estep and Hjalmarson report authorities found more than 1,000 files from patients who lived in Eastern Kentucky.

And pain management clinics still flourish within the state as well. One Johnson County pain management clinic (right) "was so busy Friday — payday — that sheriff's deputies parked outside to spot traffic violations," Estep and Hjalmarson report.

This year, state Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, has introduced Senate Bill 47, which would more strictly regulate the operation of pain clinics. (Read more)

To read more about The Courier Journal's series "A Prescription for Tragedy," view the following links:

• "Kentucky's Bell County devastated by prescription drug deaths"

• "Bell County cheerleader had good grades — a big drug problem"

• "Drug problems are growing in Louisville but abuse remains below the state average"

• "Funds to fight a drug epidemic cut even as abuse of medicines kills record number of Kentuckians"

• "Treatment is difficult for many to get"

• "Aspiring artist Sarah Shay was getting her life together, and then ..."

18 percent of Kentucky nursing homes had 10 or more deficiencies in July-Sept.; 42 exceeded state average of six

State inspectors found 20 of Kentucky's nursing homes, 18 percent of the total, had 10 or more deficiencies during the third quarter of 2010. Kentucky nursing homes have an average of six deficiencies, according to Medicare's nursing-home comparison data. The report shows 42 of the 109 homes in the state had more than six deficiencies from July through September.

Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, a non-profit organization that advocates for nursing home residents, obtained the data through an open-records request to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Inspections assess a facility on the care of residents and how that care is administered; on how staff and residents interact; and on its environment. Certified nursing homes must meet more than 180 regulatory standards.

To see a list of the nursing homes with 10 or more deficiencies, the four nursing homes that had no deficiencies during the third quarter and to read more, go to our news releases page.