http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/SrMalcontent/719 On the Channel 23 telecast at 6pm on Thursday, Oct 19, Dr Horowitz stated that &quot;it would be a conflict of interest for us not to do anything about getting contracts for our patients health plans&quot;. meaning I assume the Doctors running for election to the TVHD Board of Directors. Whoa! It would certainly be a blatant conflict if Board members (Dr Horowitz is a potential board member) were to pick and choose among the many health plans offered and choose those who benefit their patients and their practices financially&nbsp; (GEMCare and BFMC). over other plans:ie- Kaiser is the most prominent one in our district.&nbsp;&nbsp; If the Doctors running for the board are elected, chances are slim to NONE that any negotiation will be carried foreard for a contract with Kaiser for its members to be served by TVHD. Doctors, lets face it and Dr Horowitz and Hall said it in the candidate forum on Wednesday night, are a &quot;small business owners' - Their practices are their livlihood and as business owners,&nbsp;it is unlikely that they are going to do anything to hurt the solvency of their practices.&nbsp; It would&nbsp;be most unlikely that as Hospital Board Directors, they would negotiate for contracts&nbsp;that would benefit&nbsp;the Hospital and the community, rather than their practices. (A medical practice is the name for the people who depend on a one certain doctor&quot;s care - he/she is part of that certain doctor's practice.) Another point that needs to be stressed is a misstatement regarding the AHRQ grant money purchasing the retinal scanner in use now by Dr Horowitz and Dr Hall's patients - .&nbsp; This is an&nbsp;untruth, to put it knidly - Hospital funds - not grant funds- purchased that equiment and it should in no way be removed from the hospital and put in one of the physicians offices - that would be misuse of District money. Likewise, by accepting the AHRQ grant, the hospital and its partners - and this ostensibly includes the physicians, have agreed to put up $500,000 per year to receive $500,000 per year in grant funds.&nbsp; The hospital has so far furnished the major part of the matching funds. The Doctors have stated that they do not want to delay the building of our new hospital- however they have also stated that they do not approve of the layout of the hospital and would like to redraw the plans.&nbsp; Well, in that case, these new&nbsp;plans would have to be resubmitted to the State for approval and since we have only 14 months left before the mandatory closing date of all unapproved hospital - those who do not meet earthqake safety standards and do not have approval of new facilities - so we will be without any hospital for the foreseeable future.&nbsp; Our bond dollars grow a little smaller each day as they shrink in purchasing power so our ability to build a viable hospital likewise shrinks. Please consider the above and who you believe&nbsp;are the best candidates to vote onto the TVHD Board of Directors.&nbsp; My choice is with those who have no conflicted interests: Teri Kahn, Leslie Kimball and Pete Sturn. On the Channel 23 telecast at 6pm on Thursday, Oct 19, Dr Horowitz stated that &quot;it would be a conflict of interest for us not to do anything about getting contracts for our patients health plans&quot;. meaning I assume the Doctors running for election to the TVHD Board of Directors. Whoa! It would certainly be a blatant conflict if Board members (Dr Horowitz is a potential board member) were to pick and choose among the many health plans offered and choose those who benefit their patients and their practices financially&nbsp; (GEMCare and BFMC). over other plans:ie- Kaiser is the most prominent one in our district.&nbsp;&nbsp; If the Doctors running for the board are elected, chances are slim to NONE that any negotiation will be carried foreard for a contract with Kaiser for its members to be served by TVHD. Doctors, lets face it and Dr Horowitz and Hall said it in the candidate forum on Wednesday night, are a &quot;small business owners' - Their practices are their livlihood and as business owners,&nbsp;it is unlikely that they are going to do anything to hurt the solvency of their practices.&nbsp; It would&nbsp;be most unlikely that as Hospital Board Directors, they would negotiate for contracts&nbsp;that would benefit&nbsp;the Hospital and the community, rather than their practices. (A medical practice is the name for the people who depend on a one certain doctor&quot;s care - he/she is part of that certain doctor's practice.) Another point that needs to be stressed is a misstatement regarding the AHRQ grant money purchasing the retinal scanner in use now by Dr Horowitz and Dr Hall's patients - .&nbsp; This is an&nbsp;untruth, to put it knidly - Hospital funds - not grant funds- purchased that equiment and it should in no way be removed from the hospital and put in one of the physicians offices - that would be misuse of District money. Likewise, by accepting the AHRQ grant, the hospital and its partners - and this ostensibly includes the physicians, have agreed to put up $500,000 per year to receive $500,000 per year in grant funds.&nbsp; The hospital has so far furnished the major part of the matching funds. The Doctors have stated that they do not want to delay the building of our new hospital- however they have also stated that they do not approve of the layout of the hospital and would like to redraw the plans.&nbsp; Well, in that case, these new&nbsp;plans would have to be resubmitted to the State for approval and since we have only 14 months left before the mandatory closing date of all unapproved hospital - those who do not meet earthqake safety standards and do not have approval of new facilities - so we will be without any hospital for the foreseeable future.&nbsp; Our bond dollars grow a little smaller each day as they shrink in purchasing power so our ability to build a viable hospital likewise shrinks. Please consider the above and who you believe&nbsp;are the best candidates to vote onto the TVHD Board of Directors.&nbsp; My choice is with those who have no conflicted interests: Teri Kahn, Leslie Kimball and Pete Sturn. en-us Ya know - I've been asked by a couple of anonymous souls from cyberspace why the h--- I think I have any business being interested in the Hospital Board of Directors election.&nbsp; (And no, whomever - its not personal relationship - friendship is a treasure and has nothing to do with politics.)&nbsp; My interest&nbsp;is&nbsp;in having the best, cleanest, most open contest possible, and the most honest, able Board of Directors available &nbsp;- more people should take similar interest&nbsp;.<br /> As for example, two of the candidates running for board seats are directly involved with&nbsp;a Federal grant&nbsp; which seems to have turned out to be for an Information Technology Association - ITA - called EXCITA which the hospital (and its partners, ostensibly the medical community-) are to match federal funding of $1.5 million over the next couple of years. (Grand total $3 mil.)&nbsp; So far TVHD&nbsp;has purchased&nbsp;a retinal scanner that is currently&nbsp;being used at the hospital, by the ITA,&nbsp;but which EXCITA seems to feel&nbsp;should belong to them -&nbsp;GUILD LADIES - YOU PAID FOR IT, WHAT DO YOU THINK -??&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> The&nbsp;candidates in question are President Kim Horowitz and Vice President Susan Hall and if elected&nbsp;to the hosptial board, they could&nbsp;not help but&nbsp; influence control of&nbsp;the&nbsp;funding. Large salaries have been paid to the Principal Investigator and the Administrative&nbsp;Assistant of the grant..&nbsp; I believe that these funds too have come from TVHD, but it could be Uncle Sam- I'm not totally sure.<br /> How many of you, honest, knew anything about a federal grant - how many of you really care - except that part of the matching funds come out of your pockets as taxpayers?<br /> All of that looks&nbsp;sorta &nbsp;murky to me - conflict of interest - whacha think?<br /> SrMalcontent&nbsp;<br /> http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/SrMalcontent/719/#c_8028 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/SrMalcontent/719/#c_8028 Ya know - I've been asked by a couple of anonymous souls from cyberspace why the h--- I think I have any business being interested in the Hospital Board of Directors election.&nbsp; (And no, whomever - its not personal relationship - friendship is a treasure and has nothing to do with politics.)&nbsp; My interest&nbsp;is&nbsp;in having the best, cleanest, most open contest possible, and the most honest, able Board of Directors available &nbsp;- more people should take similar interest&nbsp;.<br /> As for example, two of the candidates running for board seats are directly involved with&nbsp;a Federal grant&nbsp; which seems to have turned out to be for an Information Technology Association - ITA - called EXCITA which the hospital (and its partners, ostensibly the medical community-) are to match federal funding of $1.5 million over the next couple of years. (Grand total $3 mil.)&nbsp; So far TVHD&nbsp;has purchased&nbsp;a retinal scanner that is currently&nbsp;being used at the hospital, by the ITA,&nbsp;but which EXCITA seems to feel&nbsp;should belong to them -&nbsp;GUILD LADIES - YOU PAID FOR IT, WHAT DO YOU THINK -??&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /> The&nbsp;candidates in question are President Kim Horowitz and Vice President Susan Hall and if elected&nbsp;to the hosptial board, they could&nbsp;not help but&nbsp; influence control of&nbsp;the&nbsp;funding. Large salaries have been paid to the Principal Investigator and the Administrative&nbsp;Assistant of the grant..&nbsp; I believe that these funds too have come from TVHD, but it could be Uncle Sam- I'm not totally sure.<br /> How many of you, honest, knew anything about a federal grant - how many of you really care - except that part of the matching funds come out of your pockets as taxpayers?<br /> All of that looks&nbsp;sorta &nbsp;murky to me - conflict of interest - whacha think?<br /> SrMalcontent&nbsp;<br /> I went back to school on this one - No, TVHD is not paying salaries for the two people mentioned above.&nbsp; Uncle Sam is very generous- again, if you come to think of it, with our tax money. http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/SrMalcontent/719/#c_8040 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/SrMalcontent/719/#c_8040 I went back to school on this one - No, TVHD is not paying salaries for the two people mentioned above.&nbsp; Uncle Sam is very generous- again, if you come to think of it, with our tax money. If i may correct..large salaries have been paid to the PI, AA, and Dr Horowitz...it's a grant, why are they distributing money to themselves? http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/SrMalcontent/719/#c_8398 http://www.tehachapinews.com/home/Blog/SrMalcontent/719/#c_8398 If i may correct..large salaries have been paid to the PI, AA, and Dr Horowitz...it's a grant, why are they distributing money to themselves?