[StBernard] Bill lets doctors stay on hospital panel

[Westley Annis]

Bill lets doctors stay on hospital panel
Their firm competing for St. Bernard pact Wednesday, June 25, 2008By Mary
Elise DeCoursey

A bill passed by the state Senate on Monday will allow two doctors to remain
on St. Bernard Parish's hospital commission while also being employed by the
Franciscan Mission, which is competing with Ochsner to operate a
still-to-be-built hospital in the parish. 

However, while Drs. Bryan Bertucci and Paul Verrette can serve on the St.
Bernard Hospital Service District Commission, they will not be allowed to
vote on any issue involving the Franciscan group. 

The bill authored by Rep. Reed Henderson, D-Violet, passed in the House of
Representatives without opposition earlier in the session. The Senate vote
was 23-9. The other members of the parish's legislative delegation were
split, with Rep. Nita Hutter, R-Chalmette, supporting it and Sen. A.G.
Crowe, R-Slidell, opposed. 

The bill now heads to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who can sign it into law, veto it
or take no action, in which case it would become law. 

"It's a relief that now we can concentrate on business and spend less time
on the political maneuvering that has occurred since some of these questions
have arisen," Verrette said. 

Bertucci said, "I don't think anything's been done unethically from the very
beginning. This has caused a huge delay." 

But some St. Bernard Parish officials are unhappy with the version of the
bill that made it through the Legislature. 

In order to win the support of the St. Bernard Parish Council, Henderson had
agreed to set an expiration date of Aug. 15, 2008. However, in a legislative
conference committee, of which Henderson was a part, that date was removed. 

"I've never had to deal with a situation where you have an agreement and
they just blatantly disregard it," St. Bernard Parish Councilman Ray Lauga
said. "If he was going to do what he wanted to do, why waste two hours of
the council's time?" 

Henderson said that at the time he agreed to the expiration date, he was
unaware of a two-year "curative period" for ethics violations, and that
including the August expiration date could have put the doctors at ethical
risk again. Henderson also felt the so-called "sunset clause" was
unnecessary given that the doctors would not be able to vote. 

Henderson's bill originally had a 2010 expiration date. 

"I made an agreement in the spirit of working with the council," Henderson
said Tuesday. "But I was told by the staff (in Baton Rouge) that it
destroyed the protection of the doctors." 

. . . . . . . 

Mary Elise DeCoursey can be reached at mdecoursey at timespicayune.com or
504.826.3362.