What a difference a few months and an angry delegation of state lawmakers can make when they put their minds to it.
For proof, just look at three recent about-faces made by Erlanger hospital.
On May 1, hospital authority board members held a three-hour meeting to better explain how the $1.7 million in management incentives are supposed to work after they a few months before had slipped the incentives into a meeting agenda at the last minute and approved the bonuses with little discussion.
The stealth bonus action came on the heels of the delegation helping Erlanger win an additional $19 million in federal funding -- money that got the hospital out of the red. It also came after after the board cut retiree insurance benefits, citing the need for cost-cuting measures. The hasty vote on the bonuses was essentially voided in January when Tennessee's attorney general ruled the board's discussions of incentives violated open meetings laws.
The board approved the bonuses again last week. The three-hour explainer meeting was the set-up.
Erlanger also announced it will allocate up to $225,000 to assist retirees affected by last year's cuts.
Further, the hospital, this month, plans to begin videotaping its board meetings and posting them on YouTube in an attempt to rebuild trust after months -- actually years -- of secret and closed meetings.
"This provides the opportunity to view every resolution, to follow every discussion and vote, as well as watch all special presentations," Erlanger board Chairman Donnie Hutcherson said in a letter to legislators.
After the bonuses outrage, state lawmakers repeatedly blasted the board -- both for discussing the bonuses behind closed doors and for being tone deaf to approve the bonuses in light of other cuts and hospital leaders' pleas for help in getting access to millions in federal money.
But the lawmakers didn't just complain. They also threatened new bills on everything from reconstituting the board -- again -- to writing laws that required the hospital have court reporters record all meetings. Even closed ones.
The righteous indignation worked.
Now if we could only get these lawmakers -- especially Sen. Todd Gardenhire, Rep. Mike Carter and Sen. Bo. Watson -- to care just as much about the 280,000 low-income, working Tennesseans who could be buying affordable private insurance through the Affordable Care Act had our lawmakers not blocked Gov. Bill Haslam's negotiated Volunteer State ACA hybrid, Insure Tennessee.