Not so fast, says UT Southwestern spokesman Tim Doke says regarding the Dallas Morning News’ post. He just shot an e-mail to me, Tim, and Wick, saying the DMN scribes left out some choice bits of the discussion.
I’ll let him explain:
“As with most reports from the DMN, their account of this phone exchange carefully omitted some relevant selected detail.
As an actual participant on the call, let me clarify the cost issue so we don’t look either greedy or obstructionist. We explained that, unlike the State Comptroller’s sophisticated system that provides high-level financial reporting on a monthly basis, UT Southwestern never has had a requests for all check registers dating back five years. We have at least five different systems covering two hospitals, an medical practice group, research, education and payroll. The revised $2,800 quote basically covers just programming and CPU time to produce the requested documents and to block certain fields that contain sensitive personal information. When the program runs and spits out 10+ million check registry results, we have an legal obligation to protect the privacy of patients and employees and others who receive checks from us, so will have to check each record to ensure that addresses, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers and other sensitive information has been redacted. Our releasing even one piece of personal identifying information related to a patient who might have received a refund, for instance, would be in violation of HIPAA regulations that protect patient privacy.
As a result of the objection of the DMN reporter and his lawyer, the costly time and resources to do the exhausting line-by-line inspection now will be absorbed by the University, which means that a public institution will be eating the upper six-figure cost to provide five years of check registers to the DMN and ensure they have been scrubbed to protect people’s privacy.”
30 comments
Please ask Mr. Doke whether UT Southwestern has any lawyers on staff. Per section 70.3(d)(4) of the Texas Administrative Code:
“When confidential information pursuant to a mandatory exception of the Act is mixed with public information in the same page, a labor charge may be recovered for time spent to redact, blackout, or otherwise obscure confidential information in order to release the public information.”
Moreover, it appears that UTSW also could include an overhead charge equal to 20% of the labor costs.
More trash from the DMN—it figures!!! Clearly, they have it in for UT Southwestern and Parkland, and want to ruin both highly regarded institutions for the sake of selling newspapers. What have the reporters for the DMN ever done for the city of Dallas except to spew their libelous lies about us? They might as well rename their website as dallashealthcare.blogspot.com and their paper as the Larry News Agency. No wonder DMN readers are leaving in droves. It’s clearly desperate times for desperate people.
I can truthfully say that UT Southwestern is much more important to Dallas than this sorry excuse for a yellow journalistic rag has ever been. Unlike the DMN, Dallas needs both UT Southwestern and Parkland to thrive. Does the DMN have the clout to build multi-billion dollar buildings in the heart of Dallas as Parkland and UT Southwestern can? I hope the reporters at the DMN or their family members never have any medical emergencies in the middle of the night and need to be treated at our facilities because we don’t forget, and we certainly don’t forgive.
The Texas Public Information Act is nothing but a burden to governmental bodies trying to run the people’s business and maintain confidentiality of their records. The facts are, if the government had to be open, accessible, and accountable to every Tom, Dick, and Harry to disclose information about its affairs, then virtually all governmental bodies would shut down and cease to exist. Governmental bodies should not have to answer to the average Joe, and Ms. Hurley is in the right not having to answer to the DMN. Such frivilous requests for information just waste valuable time and money for the government, which could have been spent on a more productive agenda. We don’t need more open government. What we need is more protections and rights for governmental bodies to be able to conduct their business in private without having newspapers digging around in their trash for dirt to splatter all over the front pages.
Not all governmental bodies are crooked, so the public should trust that their public institutions are truthful and honest enough in their business practices, without having to look over their shoulders all the time. In fact, I can honestly attest that UT Southwestern has nothing but a squeaky clean reputation and absolutely has nothing to hide. We have passed every inspection and have never been placed on any probation by any oversight agency. So what is the real reason why the DMN trying to cause trouble by digging into our records and affairs?
Clearly, all these stories from the DMN are driven by only one and only one disgruntled employee who can’t cope with what he was dealt in life. He got what he deserved as punishment for the mistakes that he made, and now he is taking all his frustrations out by blaming UTSW for his own errors in judgment. All he wants now is money from UTSW, plain and simple. That’s what anybody who complains about UT Southwestern ever wants is just money. I guarantee that this employee and the DMN will go down in flames, together, if they continue down this self-destructive road of defaming two very powerful institutions with lots of influence and political clout.
So far, the DMN has come up with nothing to substantiate any of the allegations they have libelously set forth against Parkland or UT Southwestern in their newspaper. Wait and see, the DMN and this disgruntled employee will pay dearly for trying to stir up trouble. Don’t mess with UT Southwestern.
The enterprising journalist should do an open records request concerning how many hundreds of thousands of dollars the Dallas Morning News’ endless open records requests have cost taxpayers at UTSW and Parkland Hospital. The paper, which is owned by a profit making corporation, fights over paying anything for these records even as taxpayers wind up footing these huge bills. If these institutions had the guts to put a price tag on all of these requests which comprise a giant fishing expedition taxpayers could direct their attention to why the Dallas Morning News is wasting taxpayer dollars.
Please excuse DMN Watchdog’s threat that the DMN employees or relatives will be harmed by seeking medical care at Parkland or UT Southwestern. My husband works for UT Southwestern Medical Center, and I can assure you that the nurses and doctors with whom he works do not discriminate against the DMN.
I do agree with DMN Watchdog about Parkland and UT Southwestern being extremely important to the city of Dallas. It would be a shame to hurt these institutions in the name of “freedom.”
Enough said. Just from the importance of Parkland and UT Southwestern to Dallas citizens, I think they should take privileges above and beyond the rights of the press and private citizens. That fact alone should grant UT Southwestern immunity from these silly lawsuits and PIA/FOIA requests that seek to portray UT Southwestern in a bad light. It’s enough already with this garbage with the freedom of the press and being informed of the affairs of government. Spoiled Americans have been granted too many freedoms and entitlements, and it’s time to roll back some of these ridiculous civil rights a little bit. Sometimes, it makes me pine away for the good old days. Governmental entities should have the right to keep potentially embarrassing things secret from the public for their own good. That kind of abuse of the constitution needs some checks and balances as well.
I think the way the DMN has been acting with their investigative series on Parkland and UTSW, they are jeopardizing the privileges of executives from DMN’s parent company, Belo Corp, from being on UTSW’s VIP list. If they continue, UTSW will pressure the executives of the Belo Corp to pressure the reporters and editors to stop writing any bad press about Parkland and UTSW. UTSW has done it before against two TV reporter who tried to do investigative reports against UTSW at WFAA.
I agree with LM. The rights to free speech and checks and balances to governmental bodies should not be at the expense of hurting big public institutions like Parkland and UT Southwestern. They are much more important to Dallas than any single citizen or even the press; therefore, there should be protections for public institutions to be able to keep secrets from their own good. All the stories that have come out by the DMN have done nothing but erode the trust that the public has for and increased the animosity of the patients against Parkland and UT Southwestern. This is just counterproductive for us. These abuses of freedom of the press and right to be informed of the affairs of government have to be stopped because it costs a lot of money to defend big institutions from lawsuits and make needless changes in policies when nothing is wrong with the system. All this bad press from the DMN is on the account of one silly disgruntled employee who is making a lot of trouble for Parkland and UTSW. He got what he deserved as punishment by the administration for his ridiculous claims of Medicare fraud being committed at Parkland, which is just a figment of his imagination. (This employee should not forget to take his psych medications.) UT Southwestern has sovereign immunity under the eleventh amendment of the constitution; therefore, it’s pointless for this individual to try to contest his silly lawsuit in the courts. You’ll see. This individual will go down in flames, and the DMN will have egg on its face.
The problem with this country is that everyone has “rights” and “freedoms”. LM is absolutely right. Some of our freedoms should be taken away to protect the interests of our very important governmental institutions such as UTSW. By the way LM, many of us at UTSW feel the same way as DMN Watchdog and wouldn’t lift a finger to help any of these so called journalists if they crawled on their hands and knees to ask for our help.
What is ironic is that Parkland did save the life of the wife of a top Belo executives – who thanked them in an open letter published on the company’s web site. The DMN reporters ignored that to focus on another patient’s claim linked to a doctor who is suing the hospital. The newspaper has an agenda and would rather mine documents in the comfort of their offices than actually learn how a hospital operates. Their stories are like the paper’s award winning North-South series. Lot’s of heat but not light.
Wow,you UTSW Parkland supporters are actually HURTING your case. I didn’t care about this at all to be honest, but after your responses, you seem to have a warped sense of entitlement. Remove UTSW and Parkland from the quotes (which you are all obviously connected with) and read these statements from above:
“Governmental entities should have the right to keep potentially embarrassing things secret from the public for their own good.”
“there should be protections for public institutions to be able to keep secrets from their own good.”
“Some of our freedoms should be taken away to protect the interests of our very important governmental institutions”
@Ironic,
Seriously? One has NOTHING to do with the other. So a Sr. DMN Exec’s wife went to a publicly funded hospital and they saved her life (you know, what hospitals are for), and now his company should somehow treat them differently? Huh.
Of course the reporter ignored that fact, that’s what they are supposed to do.
A balanced story would have mentioned more than one patient whose was in the care of a doctor who is suing Parkland and alleges (with no real backup) that she was the victim of negligence. Very misleading and one sided. As for Open Records – no one is saying that either institution should be exempt from the law. Taxpayers should be protected from over-the-top fishing expeditions by anyone that cost tax payers tens of thousands of dollars. If anyone ever publishes the cost of the papers abusive and silly Open Records Requests taxpayers will be outraged. I’m glad UTSW finally got this issue into the open and hope that a reputable journalist will follow up to see how much this is costing taxpayers.
“Governmental entities should have the right to keep potentially embarrassing things secret from the public for their own good.”
Wow. Just. Wow.
Replace “Governmental entities” in that sentence with “Gov. Rick Perry” or “Congress” or even “Dallas Police” … would you still think that way?
I think Watchful Eye was being sarcastic. At least I hope so.
Oh boy, and Not a Fan – they scare me.
UTSW Parkland should be afforded the same sort of protections as other large quasi-governmental entities in North Texas, such as DFW Airport.
When public pressure was placed on area political leaders to repeal the Wright Amendment, the government rightfully chose to side with protecting DFW Airport over accommodating the public “needs” and ended up reinforcing the Airport’s quasi-monopoly.
Similarly, in this case protection of a large, valuable government institution (Parkland) should trump individual rights.
@Hugh W.,
Why? Why is protecting DFW over Love Field right? And where does “protection” stop? Who determines that? The second goverment get’s the ability to hide behind “in the best interests”, which they determine, is the second I start to get very scared.
… What? Many of you people are more than a little nuts.
“The rights to free speech and checks and balances to governmental bodies should not be at the expense of hurting big public institutions like Parkland and UT Southwestern.”
Clearly, since the federal government is significantly larger than the hospitals, we should not demand any information at all from the federal government.
And if anything healthcare related is especially sacrosanct, why, we shouldn’t even let anybody talk about the healthcare reform bills and the regulations behind.
Nevermind individual rights to free speech aren’t particularly related to government openness.
“They are much more important to Dallas than any single citizen or even the press; therefore, there should be protections for public institutions to be able to keep secrets from their own good.”
What a great idea, having government run in secrecy! That worked out so well for, say, Stalin. What could possibly go wrong? *Especially* with healthcare. Why, we haven’t had a Tuskegee Syphyllis Experiment-style scandal revealed in *weeks*! other than that other one.
Seriously, some of you folks really want government run in secrecy, with more deference given the larger and more powerful and important the agency is? Really? Really? So you don’t want access to the health risk information behind, say, that big powerplant dropping sulfur oxides and particulate contaminates into your lungs. What could possibly go wrong?
Try this for another quote:
“This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The Dallas Morning News really is getting stranger and stranger. Maybe some sort of paranoid siege mentality is setting in.
I just had a comment deleted from one of Mike Hashimoto’s posts for defending Obama after his “shellacking” by comparing him to Max Fischer in “Rushmore”…”Obama saved Latin. What did you ever do?” Pretty nasty stuff, I’ll admit.
When aggressive stuff like is in this post starts happening while Mike Hashimoto – Mike Hashimoto! – starts getting the leg-crossing, ankle-twining political vapors we are all in for a world of dangerous weirdness to come. I’m thinking the Muppets reprising Rocky Horror or something.
You don’t think they’ll start staking out our homes with investigative reporters until we give in and agree to accept Briefing, do you?
Clayton is absolutely right. This is why there should be some roll-back of the rights that the press have to investigate governmental institutions. These reporters all they do is stake out Parkland and UTSW digging around their garbage all day long.
What is so wrong with trying to get to the bottom of the corruption at Parkland & UTSW you have no idea how many peoples lifes have been ruined by them they think they are above god, Great Job for DMN who will not back down from them and if more people did that they would not do what they do.
Leah will do and say anything to get what she wants even if it makes UTSW look stupid for saying she would changed them 1 million dollars really she would.
UTSW & Parkland need to remember who pays them and we want answers and if there books are not in order and they become open we will have find all the corruption and membership dues they we also paid rember the wine & dine that Ker Wildenthal did on our expense.
Texas sure has changes since I lived there 20 or so years ago. Some government bureaucrats saying they couldn’t tell the public how they’re spending their money unless they give them $1 million would have been grounds for lynching. Y’all must be from out of state.
But 20 years ago, getting a dump of their payables table might have actually been difficult. Modern database management systems were invented for the very purpose of making something like this trivial.
And doesn’t this mean that even they can’t have a good idea about what they’re spending?
And they’re mixing confidential patient information with accounting data? Really!? Someone ought to be looking into that too.
In the end, the importance of UTSW and Parkland to Dallas is going to take predence over the rights of any individual or the rights to freedom of the press. I assure you we will prevail in keeping these documents from being released to the public, even if we have to sue the Attorney General to prevent their disclosure under the PIA. It’s for the public’s own good that these records are not going to be disclosed to the public.
Transcript from phone conversations between Leah Hurley and Tim Dokes at UTSW.
Leah Hurley: Here’s the plan. We have the check registers, and we hold the world ransomed for…[dramatic pause]…One MILLION DOLLARS!!!
No.2 (Tim Dokes): Ahem…well, don’t you think we should maybe ask for *more* than a million dollars? I mean, a million dollars isn’t exactly a lot of money these days. UTSW alone makes over a billion dollars a year!
Leah Hurley: Really?
No.2: Mm-hmm.
Leah Hurley: That’s a number. Okay then. We hold the world ransom for…[dramatic pause]..One hundred BILLION DOLLARS!!!
[Wasn't all this from Austin Powers?]
UTSW can’t get out of their own way.
UT Southwestern (UTSW) has always been a cloak and dagger type of place that needs the sun light provided by the DMN. Good job DMN keep the truth coming out.
The future of fraud, now
I think D Magazine’s FrontBurner completely missed the significance of the DMN article on their Texas Public Information Act requests for UTSW’s check registers.
This was a complete gaffe from UTSW’s Executive VP & Legal Counsel, Leah Hurley, who (by her title) is an official spokesman for UTSW. The fact that she completely got flustered–when the DMN revealed that their expert lawyer, Joe Larson, was conferencing the call–to the point she suddenly hung up says a lot. It’s not very professional conduct from a lawyer, not to mention not very mature for any responsible adult to do when being interviewed by the press for information regarding allegations of patient overbillings.
What makes this gaffe even worse is that Ms. Hurley then later contacted the DMN with a revised estimate that completely contradicted her previous seven-figure estimates (of more than one-million dollars) for the costs of disclosing UTSW’s check register for the meager sum of only $2884.60. It makes it sound like she and the University were caught red-handed in trying to obstruct potentially embarrassing public information about the University from being disclosed to the public.
After UTSW realized this, they no longer allowed Ms. Hurley to speak on behalf of the University and have since only allowed Tim Dokes, their “other official” spokesman, to speak to the press–not with the DMN, but with only D-magazine’s FrontBurner.
This is yet another huge embarrassment for UTSW, who probably felt some reprieve during this relative recent period of calm from the barrage of articles that came this year from the DMN on the various scandals involving the public hospital systems, Parkland and UTSW. This incident only puts UTSW right back in the headlines with public perceptions that they are trying to hide something from the public that is potentially very embarrassing and/or puts the University in great legal jeopardy.
Clearly, Parkland and UTSW do not wish to be in the media spotlight for continuing bad press, especially now that both have committed themselves to the construction of two new billion dollar hospitals. It puts public support for such projects in deep jeopardy.
It also appears that–much like her counterpart at Parkland, Michael Silhol, and recently “retired” VP and CEO of UTSW hospitals, Sharon Riley–Ms. Hurley’s tenure as UTSW Executive VP for Legal Affairs may be coming to an abrupt end. How can UTSW continue to allow Ms. Hurley to be their Public Information Officer, when the perception about her is that she is dishonest, incompetent, and a complete obstructionist regarding the disclosure of public information from a governmental body such as UTSW.
Let there be no doubt, that UTSW, under the Texas Public Information Act, are obligated by law to release all documents regarding their business affairs because of the wishes of our founding fathers to keep the instruments of the people open, transparent, and fully accountable to the people.
Look for Ms. Hurley to suddenly “voluntarily resign” or “retire” with the same kind of golden parachutes that Silhol and Riley received. It will be announced in a two or three months time with one year’s advanced salary of around $330,000, full benefits, and possible future consulting work.
Let’s not make this a bigger story than it really is. Yes, it’s embarrassing for UTSW to have to admit now that mistakes were made. Leah Hurley made a very tiny miscalculation in her estimates of seven figures to disclose UTSW’s check register, but to her credit, she revised the costs for the DMN down to $2884.60. This is thus much to do about nothing. Leah Hurley’s position at UTSW is not in jeopardy. There are no plans to fire Ms. Hurley because she is not a dishonest person, trying to obstruct the disclosure of information that the public has every right to know. As Tim Doke explained, the blame for this embarrassing mistake is purely on the DMN for instigating the incident and blowing it out of proportions. Only part of the story was revealed by the DMN article, to which UTSW’s spokesman, Tim Doke, did not have an opportunity to rebut. I cannot emphasize enough what a tremendously valuable asset that UTSW is to the community of Dallas and to Texas, and such misunderstandings should not be taken by the citizens of Dallas to reflect poorly on the commitments UTSW has to serve this community.
Duh? Why try to protect Parkland and Southwestern. All public entities in this country are subject to similar laws.
Requests for info under public info laws do not negate that both institutions provide significant good. Public info laws are one of are best tools in ensuring that tax dollars are spent wisely.
I have never known of any other government agency whining so loudly about accountability. These laws apply to large BUSINESSES that the tax money directly funds. If Parkland and Southwestern want to be exempt from the law, the answer is simple: stop taking tax dollars! Fund the institutions yourselves out of your executive salaries, pharmaceutical money, etc.!
I find it very hard to believe that in our high-tech age that such a report cannot be generated quickly and cheaply.
I think Southwestern realized they had better comply and dropped the fee before Greg Abbot stepped in.
It’s easy to avoid a “frivolous” request under current law. Just send TX AG Gregg Abbott a letter in 7 days stating why the agency thinks it should not have to comply.
Here ya go. Llano ISD superintendent Jack Patton was arrested for noncompliance with the Texas Public Information Act. Must research more to see if there has been anyone else arrested for noncompliance since then.
I don’t even have to look into a crystal ball to guestimate that some med executives are getting close to the line Jack Patton crossed.
http://splc.org/news/report_detail.asp?id=979&edition=24