By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
Nearly identical bills quietly filed in the Florida House and Senate would grant Broward’s two taxpayer-supported hospital districts sweeping new powers they could use to merge or go into business with any public or private company without fear of violating state or federal antitrust laws.
The bills (HB 1253 and SB 1518) were introduced amid turmoil at the South Broward Hospital District, which does business as Memorial Healthcare – where 66 employees were fired on Monday – and fresh questions about a lack of transparency at the North Broward Hospital District, which does business as Broward Health.
After broadly describing how it would authorize the two districts to jointly operate under virtually any conceivable business circumstance, the bills go on to add this striking language, “Such districts may exercise such powers, regardless of the competitive consequences thereof, including any actions that may be deemed anticompetitive within the meaning of state and federal antitrust laws.”
Today, the bills are before various committees for consideration.
The bills’ Republican sponsors, Sen. Bryan Avila of Miami and Rep. Hillary Cassel of Dania Beach, did not respond to requests for comment. Co-sponsor Rep. Michael Gottlieb, D-Davie, said it was pitched to him as an efficiency measure.
“Somebody asked me really early on and it seemed like a good bill,” said Gottlieb. “We’ve all been eyeing government as being too big, too fat and inefficient…If this bill allows that to be done and it does it without costing us in terms of the care, I’m all for it.”
Gottlieb said he did not recall who sought his support for the bill. “I truthfully don’t remember,” he said.
Legislative records, however, clearly indicate that Broward’s two hospital districts, both led by Shane Strum, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s former chief of staff, are behind it. Four lobbyists for the two districts are registered with the House to lobby for HB 1253 – Jorge Chamizo of Floridian Partners, James Card of Continental Strategy, Candice Ericks of Ericks Consultants and Kelley Mallette of Ronald L. Book PA.
Strum spokeswoman Jennifer Smith confirmed the districts’ leadership role in the matter. “I know it was coming out of the two systems,” she said.
HCA HEALTHCARE IS SNIFFING AROUND
Also pushing the bill is lobbyist Paul Hawkes, who represents the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, whose members include the two Broward districts. (Hawkes, you may recall, is the former chief judge of Florida’s First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee who resigned in 2011 about a month before he was to appear before the Judicial Qualifications Commission to dispute serious charges regarding his role in the construction of a new, nearly $50-million courthouse dubbed a “Taj Mahal” by critics.)
Another lobbyist for the bill, Robert Bradley of Oak Strategies LLC, is also noteworthy. His client is HCA Healthcare, the giant for-profit once run by now-U.S. Sen. Rick Scott when it was known as Columbia/HCA. Scott, who was Florida governor from 2011 to 2019 when he became a U.S. senator, was forced to resign in 1997 amid a federal investigation into massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud that ultimately cost the company $1.7 billion – that’s billion with a B – in fines and penalties.
Bradley did not respond to a Thursday email requesting comment about HCA’s interest in the proposed legislation.
“We’re finding health deserts or areas where patients don’t have the access to the different things they want,” said Strum spokeswoman Smith. “We really feel that together through some of these collaborations we can do a better job of picking up the under and uninsured patients that right now continue to suffer from some health disparities. That’s the intent, to find ways for the two systems to work together to go after the underserved of the community.”
Smith added that the ultimate destination of the “Better Together” strategy the two hospital districts announced together in February – merger, privatization, something else – has yet to be determined.
“I don’t think that [Strum] or the leaders of either systems or the local legislators are ruling anything out. For right now, it’s more of an assessment period and from there, if it seems there is some synergy, maybe we move toward that or it could be that we just stay in our independent lanes with our own strategic plans,” Smith said.
‘A MINOR RESTRUCTURING’
Strum, who took over at Memorial in September on an interim basis, announced that 66 Memorial employees were being terminated in a Monday morning email obtained by Florida Bulldog. The casualties included 30 employees in the district’s corporate headquarters, six from its Physician Group and 30 workers at its six hospitals, the email says.
Another 11 corporate employees and 21 Physician Group members will see “role changes” in their employment, the email says. Smith said those affected were in “lower-level manager roles” and will be “transitioned back to a true bedside caregiver nursing type position.”
Strum called what happened the beginning of a “minor restructuring” of Memorial’s 17,500-employee workforce. “While very small in number, affecting about 0.5 % of our employees, changes like these are always difficult as they require us to change the roles of some and part ways with other members of the Memorial family. This reorganization is necessary, though, as it eliminates job redundancies and creates operational efficiencies that will enable us to continue to invest more back into frontline care.”
Memorial’s Physician Group consists of approximately 400 adult and pediatric doctors. The eliminated positions involved only administrative personnel, not doctors, nurses or bedside clinicians, said Strum’s spokeswoman Smith.
Meanwhile at Broward Health, there are complaints about a lack of transparency.
For example, the district’s board of directors used to livestream its meetings. Under Strum’s leadership, however, that’s changed. Also, the board used to post online and provide handouts to the public containing relevant documents and other materials to help attendees better understand the issues. Again, not anymore.
“This lack of transparency can lead to concerns about accountability, decision-making processes and the overall governance of Broward Health,” one source told Florida Bulldog.
For fiscal year 2025, Memorial Healthcare projected that it would collect a little over $8 million in taxes on taxable property in the county roughly south of State Road 84. Broward Health’s final operating budget for its 2025 fiscal year reported it will collect $262.9 million in taxes from property in the county that’s roughly north of State Road 84.
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