Protesters Want Sutter to Return Money to Marin General

Over a dozen Marin residents gathered Tuesday at the corner of Bon Air Road and South Eliseo Drive, outside a Sutter facility that is also under dispute, to protest Sutter's transfer of $180 million from Marin General while it operated the hospital from 1995 to 2010.

The group waved signs accusing Sutter of looting the community hospital as passersby honked in support.

"There's definitely people honking and waving and thumbs up," said Sierra Salin of Fairfax, who organized the protest that also included people from Marin Peace and Justice and Occupy Marin.

Though different supporters stood at the corner at different times, according to The Marin Independent Journal Supervisor Susan Adams joined the group at one point.

Salin chose yesterday to protest because it was also the start of the arbitration hearing to determine if Sutter must return some of the $180 million to Marin General Hospital. Sutter has maintained that the transfer of money out of the hospital before management was handed over to the Marin Healthcare District in June 2010 was standard protocol. Sutter has said they frequently move excess money into a pool of money that manages its full network of hospitals.

"The Marin Superior Court ruled last year that the Marin Healthcare District and Sutter Health should resolve our differences through arbitration," said Sutter Communications Director Kathie Graham. "Arbitration began today and that is where these issues will be resolved."

Sutter would make no other comment about the protest.

The facility outside which the protest was staged is also under dispute. Marin General is attempting to evict a number of doctors from the Sutter facility, which it maintains it has a contract for use at. The eviction has so far been blocked by Sutter.

The protest Tuesday was not officially condoned by Marin General or the Marin Healthcare District, but the dispute between the healthcare district and Sutter remains heated. The district has pointed repeatedly to the timing of the Sutter money transfers in its suit against Sutter.

According to The Marin Independent Journal:

In challenging the funds transfer, Marin General Hospital's new management pointed out that Sutter transferred the bulk of the money, $88 million, between 2006 and June 2010, after a date had been set for transferring control of the hospital back to the Marin Healthcare District. The new managers noted that Sutter's consolidated audit for 2007 showed a wide variance between Sutter hospitals in cash and reserves. At Marin General it was $8 million, while at Alta Bates it was $223 million; at Mills-Peninsula Hospital, $453 million; and at CPMC, $526 million.

"I think Sutter should return the money to the residents of Marin," said Eileen Prendiville, San Rafael resident and a Sutter nurse at California Pacific Medical Center. Prendiville took her day off to come wave a sign, because she said she's had ongoing issues with Sutter. "I love being a nurse; I don't like corporate healthcare."

Salin echoed concerns about the lack of regulation for corporations -- a sentiment he said is at the core of many recent protests.

"Maybe what [Sutter] did is legal," he said, but that's exactly the problem.