THE TANGLED WEB OF HEALTHCARE AND POLITICS IN NORTHERN KENTUCKY

An Healthcare Organization Operating Under Section 501(c)(3) Of The Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare; The King Maker Of Northern Kentucky Politics

Frost Brown Todd LLP (FBT) is a national law firm headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky with over 575 attorneys in 17 offices located in California, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia.

FBT has a number of practice areas including Lobbying and Public Policy. The stated purpose of that practice area is to: “Leverage the power of political capital”. Exactly how does FBT “Leverage the power of political capital”?

“Our team is dedicated to helping you influence policy and public opinion to achieve your goals. With experienced attorneys, former elected and appointed officials, legislative and executive staff members, and leading campaign strategists on our bipartisan roster, we won’t simply open doors for you — once inside, we’ll command the respect of decision-makers across the aisle and across branches of government to achieve your goals.”

At FBT they know that to “command the respect of decision makers across the aisle” they have to form “relationships with policy makers” and their high level staff.

At FBT those relationships begin on the campaign trail with targeted donations to key legislators or candidates using multiple paths to circumvent contribution limitations.

I have picked on FBT because as I was exploring who the contributors to the various primary candidates were FrostBrownTodd kept appearing. Regardless of whether we’re discussing Democrats or Republicans as shown above the “relationship building” process is identical. Since FrostBrownTodd itself cannot make direct candidate contributions they have developed the FrostBrownTodd pac, a political action committee that donates to both candidates and to the executive committees of both the GOP and the DNC which serves as bundlers (organizations that receive campaign contributions from multiple sources then doles out that money to one or more of their party’s candidates). FBT employees also come into play at fundraisers where a cadre of them all contribute to the candidate in lieu of the company. Whether FBT employees are compensated by their employer or not for the donations they make is irrelevant in light of the number of them that attended fund raising events.

The amount of money contributed to candidates is staggering. Between October 25, 2023 and November 15, 2023 FBT contributed $256,176.18 to the Kentucky Republican Party Executive Committee. In 2021 nineteen FrostBrownTodd employees contributed $12,375.00 to Daniel Cameron’s campaign for Attorney General.

Other contributions which were made between July, 2023 and September 2023 went to:

The House Republican Caucus Campaign Committee $2,500.00

The Senate Republican Caucus Campaign Committee $2,500.00s

Damon Thayer, Chris McDaniel, Killian Timoney, and Kim Moser each received $2,100.00

Smaller amounts were given to 9 different candidates, 7 of whom were democrats

In 2021 other donations were made to:

Gary Moore, Boone County Judge Executive,

Julie Rocque Adams, heir apparent to the retiring Damon Thayer

Governor Andy Beshear

The State Democrat Executive Committee

Health Service Committee Chair, Kim Moser.

Kim Moser is of interest because one of the Kentucky offices of FBT is in Florence, which is minutes away from Kim Moser’s district. during the recent primary election the FBTpac donated $4,100 to Ms. Moserts campaign. An additional $1,450 was donated to Ms. Moser by six FBT employees at a fund raising event. Finally, $1,000 came to Ms. Moser through the Kentucky Republican Executive Committee (KREC) which is also a recipient of FBT’s generosity. Operating on the fact that money is fungible certainly some portion of the funds from the KREC was derived from FBT. In a recent Newsletter: KIM MOSER, GATE KEEPER OF YOUR HEALTH, I explained how Ms. Moser, Chairman of the Kentucky House Health Service Committee, is an ardent supporter of the monopoly ensuring Certificate of Need.

This is what FBT has to say about the participation of their Florence office employees in Northern Kentucky:

“Notably, every one of our attorneys have held longstanding leadership positions on boards across Northern Kentucky, including the Covington Business Council, the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Kentucky University Board of Regents, and Kenton County Planning Commission. Throughout the year, we provide office-led seminars, host judicial and political figures, and rally together to support our fellow community members, volunteering or donating to organizations such as ArtsWave, the United Way, the St. Elizabeth Foundation, and many others.”

Those are all pretty easy dots to connect.

FrostBrown&Todd employees have sat on the Boards of those entities that shape and approve expansion of St. Elizabeth Health Care. FrostBrown&Todd employees also actively support the St. Elizabeth Foundation both financially and administratively.

According to Sections 501(r)(3) and 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the ACA aka ObamaCare), St. Elizabeth Healthcare is considered a nonprofit hospital organization.

FrostBrown&Todd pac and employees have also contributed a substantial amount of money to the re-election campaign Kim Moser, Chair of the House Health Services Committee.

When I was a chemistry major in college I was required to take a Physical Chemistry course which included a brief section on quantum mechanics. In on chapter of the text the author described what is known as the Schrödinger Equation, a complex mathematical explanation about how a single electron move about a nucleus. The problem was that Schrödinger was at a complete loss to develop an equation that could describe the simultaneous movement of TWO elections around a nucleus and so the author of the text wrote this:

The scope of the mathematics needed to describe the movement of two electrons is beyond the scope of this book, however, it is intuitively obvious to the casual observer at a glance that….

That same intuitive observation would seem to apply here. St. Elizabeth Healthcare needs a “plan” to make sure that legislation to get rid of the Certificate of Need never sees the light of day. FrostBrown&Todd is part of that plan.

There is another dot to connect. Every three years St. Elizabeth Healthcare conducts a Community Health Needs Assessment which is reviewed by an internal St. Elizabeth group called the Community Benefits Steering Committee. Following the Steering Committee’s review a Community Benefits implementation Plan is developed. That plan describes where St. Elizabeth will focus its attention in upcoming years. Generally, speaking that “focus” means expansion and that expansion requires favorable action by the both the state and local government entities.

It will be interesting to see who FBT chooses to support in the upcoming general election.

For those of you who live well outside of Northern Kentucky — I would think that your situation is no different.

WATCH THIS SPACE

Union, Kentucky

14 June 2024