National Nurses United

signatures to town clerks throughout the Commonwealth for certification of the Hospital Profit Transparency and Fairness Act, a ballot initiative that will require hospitals to be transparent about their financial holdings and other activities, to limit CEO salaries, and to limit and claw back excess profits to ensure that taxpayer dollars are dedicated exclusively to safe patient care and necessary services for all communities in the Commonwealth. This measure has been proposed to respond to dramatic changes within the hospital industry driven by state and national healthcare reform, including the merger, consolidation, and conversion of nonprofit hospitals into larger multi-million dollar corporate networks. In 2010, Attorney General Martha Coakley released a report raising concerns about this trend and pinpointing the main driver of the Commonwealth's increasing health costs— market clout of the highest paid providers— at the expense of smaller community hospitals. MNA has worked with numerous consumer and health care advocacy groups on a number of campaigns over the years to protect services for local communities that are the direct result of this ominous trend. Some examples include fighting the closure of units that the state Department of Public Health has deemed provide essential services, and fighting layoffs of RNs and other healthcare workers. NOVEMBER 2013 In each of these instances, healthcare executives cited the uncertainty surrounding the onset of Obamacare and state healthcare reform as the driving force behind their decisions, though news media report that hospital profits have nearly doubled between 2010 and 2012. "We have created a healthcare system of haves and have-nots in Massachusetts, a system of winners and losers, where the mega healthcare corporations are the winners and too many patients and too many communities are the losers," said Julie Pinkham, RN and executive director of MNA. "The public has a right to know how and where their healthcare dollars are being invested. Particularly at a time when hospitals are using the current financial climate as an excuse to degrade or limit the care they are providing to vulnerable patients. Our hospitals, no matter who owns them, are a public trust and our safety net, and this initiative is designed to give some long overdue control back to the taxpayers and help protect that safety net." —David Schildmeier John Armelagos, RN, elected as new president of Michigan Nurses Association MICHIGAN ohn armelagos, rn, from the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council (UMPNC) in Ann Arbor, Mich., was elected in October as the new president of the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA). Armelagos has been a passionate and active leader for MNA and UMPNC, holding numerous leadership positions in both organizations as well as in the labor community. He is currently the grievance chair for UMPNC, a National Nurses United vice president, and an activist with the Michigan State AFL-CIO. Armelagos began his labor career as an autoworker and union steward for 10 years. His transition to nursing started with a degree from Henry Ford Hospital School of Nursing, to which he added a BSN from the University of Michigan School of Nursing. He has spent most of his nursing J W W W. N AT I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G career as a psychosocial nurse, currently focusing on postpartum care of families. Approximately 100 delegates from MNA local bargaining units elected Armelagos on Oct. 5 during the annual House of Delegates held in Traverse City, Mich. —Ann Sincox N AT I O N A L N U R S E 5

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