Dann plans expanded role for the Youngstown regional office

The Youngstown office opened last year, and the number of employees has grown from 38 to 45.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — After his involvement with Forum Health’s sale of its former Beeghly Medical Park, Attorney General Marc Dann plans to get significantly more involved in the future of nonprofit health care facilities in the state.

Dann, a Liberty Democrat, told The Vindicator on Friday that he will meet sometime next week with officials from the 40 or 50 nonprofit hospital systems in Ohio.

As nonprofits, the facilities are required to provide “charitable contributions to the community,” Dann said. But that term isn’t defined.

“Is it good enough to just provide health care?” he said. “Do you need to give health care to those who can’t afford it? What percentage of the gross or net income should go to nonreimbursed care? We’ll work on developing standards around the state.”

There is a wide range of options available for hospital systems, Dann said.

“You can have public hospitals in Trumbull and Mahoning or a two-county public hospital system,” he said. They can stay nonprofit or be a different form of nonprofit, or form alliances with local or nonlocal health systems in the state “to strengthen their ability to provide service. There could be mergers or acquisitions or they could grow.”

Dann also mentioned that 40 to 50 nonprofit hospital systems “may be too many.”

As attorney general, Dann must approve any transfer of a nonprofit health system’s assets — giving him a lot of control over those facilities.

Dann gave the go-ahead in November of the $26 million sale by Forum Health of its then-Beeghly Medical Park in Boardman to Akron Children’s Hospital. Akron Children’s plans to convert the facility to a full-service children’s hospital.

Forum wanted to limit certain pediatric health care at its Northside Medical Center in Youngstown as part of the deal, Dann said, but he wouldn’t have approved the sale if that provision were included.

Dann also played a behind-the-scenes role in contract negotiations between Forum and some of its labor unions.

Speaking from his regional office at 20 Federal Place in Youngstown, Dann said that facility will play an expanded role in his administration.

The reclassification of about 16,000 sexual predators in Ohio was done in two months at the office, he said.

Also, with helping the victims of predatory lending at the top of his priority list this year, Dann said the call center and some of the lawyers handling those issues will be based out of the Youngstown office.

The office opened last year with 38 employees and has grown to 45.

“An amazing thing about the Mahoning Valley is we can get very high-quality help at a very reasonable cost, and we can get high-quality office space at a reasonable cost,” he said.

After just a little over a year as attorney general, Dann said he is still thrilled with the post.

“This is the greatest job that I could ever imagine,” he said. “I’m so fortunate to be here. We’ve had our mistakes. We’ve had good days and bad days in ’07. But the ability to improve the quality of people’s lives, whether it’s solving a crime or protecting a consumer or protecting the air and water” is great.

When Dann first started serving, he said he “woke up every morning, read the newspapers and I’d want to start three initiatives. For the first few months, we did that.”

Though Dann reined that in, his office has aggressively gone after major insurance brokers and predatory lenders and filed numerous environmental and consumer protection cases.

skolnick@vindy.com