Employee Complaints Against S.R.H.S. Are Heard in Court

Monday, a George County chancery court heard a legal complaint against Singing River Health System (S.R.H.S.) concerning its frozen pension plan. The judge ruled to postpone the hearing until legal technicalities can be squared away.

The case is significant because it’s the first legal challenge by a former employee over the pension plan. For 17 years, Cynthia Almond worked for S.R.H.S. as a vascular technologist. Now that she’s retired, she depends on her pension plan to support her. Almond says, “I lost my husband a year ago in May, so I am self-sufficient. Along with the other retirement I had, this is what I banked on to get me through.”

When the health system revealed it had not contributed to the pension plan in nearly five years and that the plan will be ultimately liquated, Almond wasn’t sure what to do. Almond also says, “I’m angry, I’m betrayed.”

So to stop the county owned hospital system from terminating the pension plan, Almond hired local lawyer, Harvey Barton. Barton says, “They provided this as incentive for employees to work here and they entered into a contractual agreement with them.”

Another hearing on Almond’s case will be held Friday in Pascagoula. Meanwhile, there are still plenty of questions about how the health system got to this point in the first place. It is still unclear who in the health system knew they were in financial trouble and when they knew it. According to a S.R.H.S. spokesperson, the organization’s current C.E.O., Kevin Holland, took office in March of 2014, and that’s when he found out just how bad off the pension plan was. Richard Lucas, a S.R.h.S. spokesperson, says, “He did not know until he attended a retirement meeting and that’s when he took immediate action to try to correct it.”

Before Holland, Chris Anderson was the organization’s C.E.O. In a statement released to News 25, Anderson says: "I am aware of the media reports and concerns regarding the ongoing evaluation of the Singing River Health System defined benefit plan. I have not been privy to any other information concerning this issue. Therefore, it would not be appropriate for me to comment."

Anderson has not responded to more specific questions about what he knew while he was still the C.E.O. of S.R.H.S. Retirees like Almond want answers in their futures.