State senator says U of L doctors used Medicaid funds to pay themselves $4.8 million in bonuses, seeks more oversight
Since Attorney General Jack Conway ruled the transfer illegal, some groups have elected to repay. University Physicians Associates will repay $9 million over five years; U of L, University Medical Center and local hospitals that provided capital to start Passport have agreed to repay, but on different terms. Conway did not indicate whether the $4.8 million in compensation was bonuses or salaries, Conway spokeswoman Shelley Johnson told Yetter.
Shaughnessy said repayment is not sufficient to address the real problem — “that U of L’s board wasn’t involved in major financial transactions involving groups with which it is affiliated, including Passport, University Physicians Associates and the U of L medical center,” Yetter reports. “We need to know how this happened, and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Shaughnessy said in an interview.
Shaughnessy is working on legislation for the 2012 General Assembly requiring public university boards to apply more oversight to groups like Passport. He has also written letters to Passport chairman Dr. Gerard Rabalais and U of L President James Ramsey. (Read more) To read Shaughnessy’s letter to The Courier-Journal, click here.