It has become clear that Board of Trustees of the University of Louisville is not always fully briefed about important matters. Most recently, it was reported, without denial or rebuttal by the University, that the administration withheld the non-public results of a recent external review of the University’s financial accounting system even when requested by board members. At least one Board member requested that he be permitted to resign in protest over the withholding of information and failure to allow meaningful Board discussion of important University issues. Following the controversy related to the recent departures of high-ranking University officials, I became one of many asking the UofL Board to step up to the plate. Apparently that was happening already! Continue reading “Board of Trustees to Address Accountability of University of Louisville.”
Category: Education
Sunshine Act’s Open Payment System To Physicians and Teaching Hospitals Launches Nearly On Schedule With Only Partial Data.
I once helped teach medical statistics. Much dark humor and many aphorisms were to be heard. For example: “If you torture the data long enough, it will tell you what you want to hear.” Another, “Garbage in — Garbage out,” is a shorthand way of stressing the importance of data integrity and reliability. If the data is not well defined, collected, accessible, or verifiable then any subsequent conclusions are correspondingly suspect. In the age of “big-data” and transparency of medical information, this latter concept of data reliability should be guarding the door of accountability. I suggest that the standards being applied so far by CMS to data collection would not be acceptable to editors of scientific journals and yet publication is going forward. Here is what CMS is saying about its Open Payment System:
UofL Sends Its Recent Audit and Report Card to the Public.
What would you say to your kid if they brought this home?
I received a letter from UofL President James Ramsey this week along with a copy of the “almost an audit” of the University’s financial operations from Strothman and Company that I wrote about earlier. The package was not sent to me as a journalist, but was presumably sent to everyone connected with the University such as people like me who contribute to its fund-raising initiatives. This Strothman “Report” is identical to the one released to the UofL Board of Trustees and the press, and suggests to me that it was intentionally written for a technically less sophisticated audience thus reinforcing my belief that the comprehensive report is still being kept secret– perhaps even from the Trustees.
The mailing includes a cover letter and report card from of this month’s Board of Trustees evaluation said to reaffirm that UofL is continuing on its “amazing trajectory.” However, the bulk of Dr. Ramsey’s letter deals directly with the problem of “a few employees who are dishonest.” While he expresses the University’s “regret” over the violation of the public trust, he did not go so far as to apologize. Perhaps that would have been too much to ask. Continue reading “UofL Sends Its Recent Audit and Report Card to the Public.”
The Audit That Might Have Been at the University of Louisville.
Last September, following a string of multimillion dollar embezzlements at the University of Louisville, and in the midst of ongoing concerns about the health and even the integrity of the its financial operations, the University retained Strothman and Company of Louisville for an independent outside audit. Strothman has relevant experience auditing large public institutions and has a member of the UofL Board of Trustees as a client. It is more than competent to perform an in-depth financial or management audit. The cover sheet for the Request for Proposal required that the auditors would, by March 31, 2014, perform:
• A special examination of the processes and procedures of internal audit,
• survey banking to identify UofL accounts,
• evaluate internal controls related to signature authority and vendor legitimacy,
• and examine the financial controls for faculty professional practice.
While this certainly was a reasonable business decision given the obvious system breakdowns and criticism from the community, I suspect the University felt compelled to offer at least some measure of accountability much as it did when it agreed to an audit of its handling of the QCCT fund for indigent care in early 2012. There is always some risk that an external review will turn up shortcomings, or worse. The QCCT review was not at all flattering and for whatever reason, that funding mechanism seems to be being phased out. A subsequent audit of the University’s involvement in Passport, the Medicaid managed care plan, revealed financial manipulations that were frankly illegal. High-ranking officers lost their jobs. A source of unrestricted money for the school dried up. In outside reviews of its academic affairs as evidenced by rejection of yet another application for a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, and placement of its entire Medical School and its Continuing Medical Education program on probation, UofL has not been faring very well either. Little wonder the University spends most of its promotional effort on its sports programs– Beer and Circus instead of Books and Brains. I suggest that identifying problems is not something to be afraid of. It is how the institution deals with unflattering appraisals or criticism that defines both its credibility and its strength. In my opinion, UofL’s reflexive posture of stonewalling the public is hurting it much more than revelation of its failings. This has to stop if the community is to gain the confidence needed for it to provide needed support. Continue reading “The Audit That Might Have Been at the University of Louisville.”