It is past time to demand accountability by Forum

It is not surprising that Dr. Keith T. Ghezzi, president and chief executive officer of Forum Health, announced last week that the most likely buyer for Forum’s hospitals and assorted medical facilities will be a for-profit company.

But it is truly amazing that the community and its leaders continue to accept such pronouncements from Ghezzi as if they are ex cathedra — not subject to question or review by the thousands of people over the years who helped build the Mahoning Valley’s predominant nonprofit and public health care system.

Ghezzi, a man with no permanent ties to the Valley, speaks through the pages of Forum’s internal newsletter. He tells the employees, and by extension, the community, that the only entities interested in Forum’s assets are unnamed for-profit entities, and the reaction of the community is a collective ho-hum.

We have a few questions that we think local and state elected officials should begin demanding answers to — before it is too late.

If Forum is receiving no offers from nonprofit health providers in Ohio and Pennsylvania, is it because this market has no appeal to them, or is it because the New York broker that Forum hired to market its assets hasn’t made a proper pitch?

Is Forum (and its broker, Cain Bros.) evaluating offers only on the largest dollar amount, or is Forum recognizing its obligation as a nonprofit community asset to seek what may be a better deal for the community, even if it isn’t the highest bid in dollars and cents?

Competing interests

There are disturbing possibilities for conflict of interest. Cain has an incentive to sell at the highest possible price, not necessarily to the best fit for the community. Wellspring, for which Ghezzi works, has an interest in dragging the sale out, since once the facilities are sold, Wellspring’s services are no longer needed — unless the sale is to an entity with which Wellspring has other management contracts.

Ohio’s new attorney general, Marc Dann, has had his hands full in Columbus during the first months of his administration. But he is now taking a hard look at Forum’s sale of its assets. As attorney general, Dann has to approve of the sale of a nonprofit asset in the state. As a Mahoning Valley resident, he says he is taking a special interest in Forum.

But other elected officials and community leaders have to step up as well and begin demanding more public accountability from Ghezzi and others who don’t seem to recognize that Forum began as the Youngstown Hospital Association and was built over the years by local philanthropists and a generous public.

There are a lot of questions to be answered now. And there will be more after a sale is complete. Obviously, the “profits” — whatever is left after Forum’s bondholders are paid and its unfunded pension liabilities are met — will go into a nonprofit foundation. But who will define its mission, and who will control the pursestrings?