It is the season for study committee meetings.  Earlier this week, I participated in the first meeting of the Senate Study Committee on Genetic Technology, chaired by Senator Eric Johnson.  The committee was formed to consider the legal issues arising out of advanced fertility treatments.  For example, what should happen to frozen eggs and sperm if a couple divorces or one of the donors die?  What are the inheritance and other rights of a child conceived after the death of the mother or father, using frozen eggs or sperm? 

Fascinating questions, and I am glad that Senator Johnson has taken the lead in gathering the information that we need to answer them.  At our first meeting, we heard from a leading fertility doctor, a lawyer who practices in adoption and surrogacy law and two couples who received fertility treatment. 

Less fascinating, but still important, was a meeting of the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee, called by Senator Bill Hamrick to review a proposed revision of Georgia’s securities law.  Bob Terry of Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office presented, section-by-section, a new model law prepared by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.  We will likely take up the new model in the 2008 Legislative Session, and I am glad that Chairman Hamrick has already begun familarizing the members of his committee with this complicated issue.

I also met this week with Mike Cassidy, President of the Georgia Research Alliance, a public-private partnership originally organized in 1990 to use the research capabilities of Georgia’s universities to encourage economic development.  The GRA is at the beginning of a major initiative to make Georgia a leader in vaccine research.   I strongly support the GRA and believe that Georgia is fortunate to have Mike Cassidy at its helm.

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This afternoon I visited Grady Hospital to pick up a copy of the audit report described by former Grady trustee Bill Loughrey as showing that Emory charged Grady for services that it did not perform or properly document.  I asked for a copy of this report last Friday under the Open Records Act and was advised this morning that it could be mine for $81.25 — the cost of copying it.

The report has been a source of some controversy.  The dean of Emory’s medical school told a House study committee earlier this week that Loughrey had it wrong and that the audit actually showed that Emory was in compliance with the provisions of the contract.

I have not fully digested the couple hundred page report, but I was quickly able to reconcile the seemingly conflicting accounts offered by Loughrey and Emory.  They are not contradicting each other as much as they are talking past one another.

As Emory contends, the audit shows that the medical schools have met what are described as the ”minimum compliance requirements” of their contract with Grady.  But the audit repeatedly criticizes those minimum requirements as “inadequate” for Grady to “accurately monitor” whether the work is actually being done. The auditors recommend a number of changes, but I have no idea, at this point, whether any of those changes have been implemented.

In any event, it is little comfort to learn that the “minimum requirements” have been met, if the requirements themselves are inadequate to the task.  It is analogous to saying the Titanic had the legally required number of life boats.  True, but.

Also, it is not clear to me that the report I was given is the same report that Loughrey is talking about.  Grady’s general counsel, Tim Jefferson, told me today that an early draft of the audit may have been circulated at a Board meeting, and then collected back from the Board members, which is exactly what Loughrey described to me.  I asked about obtaining copies of any early drafts, but he says they almost certainly no longer exist.

[UPDATE]  Apparently, as I was driving away from Grady, Emory University issued a press release saying that the audit report had been made public today under Open Records Act and that the report completely vindicates their position.

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When I made the decision to propose legislation regarding the Grady Health System, I fully understood the risk that I would be attacked because of my race.  I just never expected that attack to come from Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The AJC said they would publish my response, and I submitted this column earlier today:

Cynthia Tucker wrote an editorial yesterday criticizing my proposed legislation to reform the Grady Health System.

Tucker has no objection to the bill on its merits.  She actually agrees with me that Grady should be run by a nonpolitical, nonprofit board. 
Her objection to my interest in Grady is the fact I am white, male, conservative and Republican.

And, no, I am not paraphrasing.

According to Tucker, my race and gender serve to “increase the racial paranoia of black elected officials who fear losing control of Grady Memorial Hospital.”   Keep up my meddling, she warns, and “Grady may be forced to close.”  According to Cynthia Tucker, the best thing I can do to help Grady is “keep (my) mouth shut.”

It should go without saying that Grady is not on the verge of closing because of anyone’s press releases.

And it should be obvious that saving Grady will require work across racial and party lines.

That is why I sent a draft of my proposed Public Hospital Accountability Act to every member of the State Senate, both black and white, Democrat and Republican.   I even put a copy of the bill on the Internet (http://www.reforminggrady.org/).

Except for Tucker’s column, the reaction has been largely positive.

It would put Grady under the control of a nonprofit corporation whose directors would be insulated from politics and free from debilitating conflicts-of-interest.

Tucker attacks my legislation as “insincere,” citing my opposition to an immediate state bailout of Grady.

True, I think it would be a mistake to simply write Grady a check.  That would be like administering morphine to a cancer patient and not the medicines that would actually cure the disease. 

But I support state funding of the trauma network — a move that would directly benefit Grady and its level one trauma center.

I am also looking into legislation that would allow local governments to use existing 911 fees to support public hospitals that offer trauma services.

But subsides are not Grady’s salvation.  My constituents in North Fulton have been subsidizing Grady for years, and that has gotten us nowhere.

To survive, Grady must be fundamentally reformed, with a modern operating structure that allows it to offer the broadest range of services and attract a self-sustaining mix of patients.

Grady needs a leadership team that will put Grady’s interests first, above those of its vendors, creditors and competitors.

It needs a new relationship with Emory University that utilizes the vast talents of Emory’s physicians but recognizes that Emory’s Crawford Long Hospital is its biggest competitor.

Cynthia Tucker and I agree that Grady is important and must be saved.  But she is wrong to think it can be saved by excluding people from the debate because of their gender, race or political views.

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Bill Loughrey, who served two four year terms on the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, wrote me last week with his thoughts on Grady.  I shared the letter with the Lieutenant Governor and key leaders of the General Assembly, and a copy made its way into the hands of the AJC.

Loughrey makes a number of interesting points and a couple serious allegations.  They all merit atttention and consideration.

One of Loughrey’s most troubling revelations concerns an independent audit apparently showing that Emory charged Grady for services that it did not perform or properly document.  As the lion’s share of the proposed Grady bailout — $45 million — would actually go to Emory, balancing the books between the two entities ought to be someone at Grady’s  top priority.  But Loughrey says that not only has Grady failed to act on the audit, it has kept the audit report secret for over two years at Emory’s insistence.

The dean of Emory’s medical school told a House study committee today that Loughrey has it wrong.  He says the audit points the finger at Grady, not Emory, although he adds that he has not seen the audit himself.

Getting to the truth of the matter should be easy enough.  I have been advised by Legislative Counsel that the audit is subject to the Open Records Act, and I have requested a copy.  If Grady complies with the law, it should be in my hands Wednesday.

But the issue here is much bigger than where the auditors laid the blame.  No one denies that Grady has very serious problems.  To survive, Grady must confront those problems, not hide them.

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The Lieutenant Governor has asked me to serve as chairman of two Senate study committees, the Telecommunications Taxes, Fees and Franchising Study Committee and the Cigarette Tax Evasion Study Committee. I have spent a good deal of time this summer preparing for hearings this fall.

I have set the date, time and place of the first two meetings of the telecommunications study committee. The first meeting will be Wednesday, September 5, at 1:00 p.m. in Room 450 of the State Capitol. The second meeting will be Thursday, September 20, at 10:00 a.m. in the same place. We will hear from the Georgia Department of Revenue at the first meeting, and we will begin examining various legislative proposals at the second meeting. A number of issues have been raised, and I will write about them here in more detail later.

The Lieutenant Governor appointed Senators Chip Rogers, Bill Heath, Jack Murphy and Tim Golden to serve with me. Senator Rogers authored the resolution creating the study committee.

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I am releasing this morning a draft of my proposed Public Hospital Accountability Act of 2008.  This bill will require the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority to turn over day-to-day operations of the Grady Health System to a nonprofit hospital management corporation.

The nonprofit form of management is almost universally recognized as the most effective and efficient way to manage an urban public hospital, and every other county hospital authority in metro Atlanta has voluntarily adopted this model.  Not only does formation of the nonprofit corporation insulate the hospital from political interference, nonprofit corporations have greater flexibility under federal law than government agencies.

This new website, www.reforminggrady.org, has a draft of the bill and background information concerning the problems at Grady.  I have invited comments from my colleagues in the State Senate and the public.

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Griftdrift has published my email answering his open question about embryonic stem cell research.  He also added this site to his blogroll.

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I just finished watching the Iowa Republican Debate moderated by George Stephanopoulos, which was rebroadcast this afternoon on C-SPAN.  Mike Huckabee again urged adoption of the Fair Tax, the proposal advanced by Congressman John Linder to replace all income, capital gains, estate and payroll taxes with a 23% national sales tax. 

I knew that Governor Huckabee supported the Fair Tax.  I did not realize that Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney had all ruled it out.  Giuliani’s answer to the Fair Tax question, in particular, was disappointing.  He expressed puzzlement over the Fair Tax’s ”complicated” details.  When Tom Tancredo suggested that the ex-mayor read the Fair Tax Book written by Neal Boortz and John Linder, Guiliani shouted out that he already had, prompting Tancredo to wonder aloud why he was still having such difficulty understanding the details.  I wondered the same thing myself.

I am hopeful that Fred Thompson will embrace the Fair Tax when he enters the Presidential race.  When he was in Atlanta last month, he indicated that he was open minded.

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Michael Vick has pled “not guilty,” and like anyone charged with a crime, is entitled to the legal presumption of innocence.  But presuming innocence is one thing, giving him an award is something else altogether.

[UPDATE] Michael Vick is being discussed at Peach Pundit.

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The sales tax holiday, annually reauthorized by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor, exempts back-to-school shopping from the sales tax.  The 2007 sales tax holiday begins tomorrow (actually tonight, Thursday at 12:01 a.m.) and ends Sunday at midnight.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution today published this helpful list describing the items eligible for the sales tax exemption.  The Georgia Department of Revenue has more detailed information at its website.

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