The lawsuit that seeks to stop Central Health from transferring $35 million a year to the University of Texas for Dell Medical School was obstructed by Judge Amy Clark Meacham’s ruling of May 21st. (Birch et al v. Central Health et al, Cause No. D-1-GN-17-005824) Transfers to date total $350 million and another $35 million is budgeted for this year. Those transfers are funded by the property taxes that Central Health levies on all Travis County taxpayers.
As the Bulldog reported May 23rd, neither plaintiffs nor defendant Central Health got what they wanted, following a two-hour hearing May 9th. Our video report on the hearing was published May 14th.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys on June 7th requested Judge Meacham’s permission to file an appeal. Central Health’s response filed June 10th did not oppose the request.
The controlling legal issue in the appeal, as in the lawsuit itself, is whether Central Health President and CEO Patrick Lee, MD, has the lawful authority to transfer public funds on behalf of the agency even when those funds are used for purposes other than medical care.
Plaintiffs contend such transfers exceed Lee’s authority. Defense contends that he is immune from this litigation because he is acting within his lawful authority.
If that single issue could be resolved by the court of appeals, then there would be no need to proceed with the litigation that would require both sides to conduct extensive discovery and prepare for a full evidentiary trial.
Request to file appeal denied
That option no longer exists. After a June 14th hearing Judge Meacham on Monday issued a one-sentence ruling:
“After careful consideration of Plaintiffs’ Request for Permissive Interlocutory Appeal, the response, the evidence, the pleadings and arguments of counsel, this Court denies Plaintiffs’ Request for Permissive Interlocutory Appeal.”
Attorney Fred Lewis, who along with attorney Manuel Quinto-Pozos represent the plaintiffs, said the permissive request for appeal if granted would have stayed discovery and proceedings and would have saved a lot of time and money by resolving the statutory and constitutional question at the heart of the case.
He said how long it takes to get to a trial depends in large part on how well Central Health and the University of Texas cooperate in permitting timely depositions.
Lewis said he is working on the case pro bono and he has raised money from various people to pay co-counsel. Donors, he said, are “nobody with special interests, but people who are bothered by taking poor people’s healthcare dollars” for Dell Medical School, which provides no healthcare services for Travis County’s neediest patients.
The lawsuit was filed in October 2017 and the case will soon be seven years old.
Trust indicators: Ken Martin has been doing investigative reporting in the three-county Austin metro area since 1981. See more on Ken on the About page. Email [email protected].
Related Bulldog coverage:
No checkmate in Central Health litigation, May 23, 2024
Video: Lawsuit could halt Central Health’s $35 million a year in transfers to UT Dell Medical School, May 14, 2024
Lawsuit could halt Central Health’s $35 million a year transfers to UT Dell Medical School, May 10, 2024
Commissioners approve Central Health performance audit, April 5, 2023
Watson circumvented law to fund new medical school, November 1, 2022
Central Health’s quest for medical school accountability blocked by 2014 agreement, August 5, 2022
Central Health’s $35 million payments to Dell Medical School an unlawful gift of public funds that exceed statutory authority, June 30, 2022
New documentary takes aim at diversion of indigent healthcare funds, November 15, 2021
Lawsuit challenges Central Health spending, October 18, 2017
Patrick Lee – new recruit from New York City. Went to Princeton University. How quaint. Seems to me that whoever hired him was looking for someone who would continue to use tax dollars for Dell Medical. I wonder whether that was a requirement for the position or not.
Will Patrick answer that?
And my apologies To Mr. Lewis. Thank you for doing something positive and investigating. Good on you! Dell and UT likely don’t need the money and they haven’t proved whether or not the money benefits anyone. I got confused.
Thanks Ken.
Your previous comments were, like this one, anonymous, and I trashed them both. As much as I’d like to have readers interact and further the conversation about our stories, I’m not going to allow commenters to go off half-cocked and libel someone and do so under the cloak of anonymity. It’s situations like that that make me consider requiring real names from commenters along with contact information so that I can verify identity before publishing comments.
As for Dr. Lee and who hired him, perhaps you’d like to read about that at https://www.centralhealth.net/biographies/patrick-lee/
Wow that’s so sad and ridiculous all the property taxes that we pay for it is so much my house is a old house and I pay almost 5 thousand a year this country is going from bad too worse Avery day week month’s end years