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The governing board for cash-strapped Nashville General Hospital is questioning a proposed, $468,000-a-year, no-bid contract with a marketing firm founded by a former Metro council member whose previous business dealings with the health center have come under fire.
Community Health Marketing LLC, co-founded by Jerry Maynard, is seeking a three-year, $26,000/month contract to provide health care marketing and $13,000/month for “government relations” work.
But members of the Hospital Authority have called the deal into question, noting that it was on last week’s agenda for approval, despite the fact that no other firms were allowed to bid for the work, a process done through what is known as a Request for Proposal (RFP).
Their view was backed by the authority’s own attorney, Derrick Smith, who said any such contracts must be competitively sought out. The hospital’s staff told the board a separate, outside attorney said no such bidding process was necessary.
“Why wasn’t there an RFP? And, second, I am not convinced there should be a three-year contract,” said board member Craig Lesser. “Three-year contracts in marketing and consulting are rare. There are one-year contracts that are renewed when the appropriate time comes.”
Maynard has worked with Nashville General for years. In 2018, a former board member publicly criticized a $150,000 consulting contract the board awarded him but she claimed was kept hidden from the public.
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Nashville General Hospital is the city’s safety net hospital, meaning it disproportionately serves the underinsured and/or those without any coverage. As such, it has been operating at a loss and survives with the help of taxpayer subsidies. Last year, it received more than $54 million from the Metro Nashville government.
The hospital went through the bidding process to contract with Community Health Marketing in 2018, staffers note. And its services are needed “to represent our unique need for public relations, government relations, crisis communication and marketing,” the hospital said in a recent news release.
“Their broad range of services and deep experience, including relationships with the African American faith community, made them a solid choice to support the NGH mission and model promoting healthcare equity,” the hospital states.
And, during a presentation last week, hospital staff credited such marketing with a recent 7.6% increase in new patients to the hospital.
Board member Frank Stevenson said the marketing services were and are needed to drive people to Nashville General Hospital and its outpatient clinics.
“I remember where we were when we (originally) got these services. We were in a bad space,” Stevenson said. “We were thinking the hospital was going to close because that was what was out there in the community.”
The Hospital Authority ultimately decided to defer action on the contract and will reconsider the contract at a later meeting.
Frank Gluck is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at fgluck@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FrankGluck.
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