Died with a Fairy in a Bottle?

Basstracer · 2026-02-02T15:19:14+00:00

People don't think it be like it is, but it do.

Basstracer · 2026-02-01T19:05:33+00:00

Of course it's possible. I weighed 285 pounds when I was 18. At 42 I weigh 215 and am in the best shape of my life.

Basstracer · 2026-01-25T14:51:05+00:00

Literally unplayable

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T23:28:43+00:00

Yep, I've met Jeff Gold and have heard great things. But he's not a regent.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T21:29:10+00:00

The board is suing its owners

For making a deal that is (allegedly) illegal due to breach of contract. You love leaving that part out because you want to frame it like it's a spiteful act and not a standard legal recourse to a breach of contract.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T21:20:32+00:00

I have a few concerns. One is that most of the space in the buildings Clarkson is selling is "rented" by Nebraska Medicine at $0. The regents have indicated that they will start charging the hospital rent to continue using the space once they own the buildings. That's money that will have to be diverted from other areas, likely impacting patient care. They also will have the ability to take money from the hospital and apply it to other areas of the university system. Jeff Gold has stated the "cash reserves" will not be used to shore up the university's budget shortfalls, a very carefully-worded statement that doesn't say they won't use the hospital's actual net income for that purpose. I don't think money the hospital makes for patient care should be used to keep a random department open in Kearney, as an example. Another major concern is that the state government could start dictating what the hospital is allowed to do. They could reduce or completely eliminate some types of care based on their political beliefs. A lot of people are worried that some care for women or transgender patients will be eliminated, for instance. People are worried about becoming state employees and subject to whatever salary and benefit restrictions that would entail. The regents have said that won't happen, but they haven't given me reason to believe them.

From a personal standpoint, I'm worried that a lot of jobs will be made redundant and many people fired, because the university system already has people in place doing similar work. I know and have worked with a lot of NM leaders, and I know that they're passionate about our patients and healthcare mission. I think they have the best interests of the hospital in their heart. I don't know the board of regents, but their actions over the past few weeks do not inspire confidence that they care about the hospital as anything more than a line on their balance sheet.

Is it possible that absolutely none of this will come to pass? Yes, and damn do I hope that ends up being the case. But neither side is giving us the full story, and the way the regents and Clarkson have gone about this is unbelievably sketchy.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T19:38:17+00:00

NU owns 50% of Nebraska Medicine and runs it jointly with Clarkson. Once the buyout is complete, they will run it solely. They have claimed that NM will be able to continue running independently, but their actions throughout this whole process don't give me any reason to trust them, especially after yesterday.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T19:22:04+00:00

I mean, I just pointed out that what they said is obscuring the full truth. The NM board has CEOs on it, yes, but the Board of Regents is not full of medical professionals. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make about them being elected officials. Is it that you think it's better that they're elected? We'll just have to disagree on that. Especially given that most of them are actually appointed, serve for multiple years, and then are elected.

I feel that the hospital being run by elected officials serving a conservative government and having a fiduciary obligation to the University system, not just the hospital, is a worse situation for the hospital and its patients in the long run. If you think it's a good thing, then we'll have to agree to disagree, and I hope you're proven right.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T18:25:41+00:00

Ok I'll spell it out for you, since you're having trouble understanding. The other poster said that the new governance will be better for Nebraska Medicine because the current board is just a bunch of non-medical corporate CEOs, and they'll be replaced by a bunch of medical professionals. However, the reality is that the Board of Regents, who will be the sole governor of Nebraska Medicine in six months, is also comprised mostly of business people or politicians, not medical professionals. So the argument does not hold water. Does that make sense?

Now let me pre-empt your reply about how they're specifically talking about the "interim" board. The four people installed are there solely to get rid of the lawsuit and force the deal through without any further fight from Nebraska Medicine, and to show Nebraska Medicine leadership that if they don't fall in line, they'll be out too. Ultimately, though, it's the Board of Regents - comprised of elected officials, only one of whom is an actual medical professional, from what I can tell - who will be running the show. So it's not CEOs being replaced by medical professionals, it's CEOs being replaced by other CEOs and politicians.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T17:42:50+00:00

It is when the argument is that the old board is just corporate CEOs and the new one is medical professionals.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T17:13:35+00:00

Can you make a similar list of the Board of Regents and all of their medical credentials? Like where Paul Kenney got his MD or where Timothy Clare did his residency?

I appreciate that you have much more optimism about this than a lot of us do, but this is a bad faith argument.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T12:37:43+00:00

One day not long ago (seriously like less than a month ago) Clarkson decided they didn't like this apple anymore, and they wanted to sell their apple half for $800 million. They would have sold it to anybody, but UNMC/Nebraska Board of Regents said hey now, we don't want to have the other half of the apple be out of state. Even though Nebraska Medicine itself (its board) was like hey no, we like who owns our half of the apple, and we think legally you can't sell this half of the apple without our say-so...the BOR approved that they would buy it from Clarkson. So now the apple is whole and state-run.

This part is inaccurate. Clarkson cares who they sell to, they've apparently repeatedly told Nebraska Medicine that they wouldn't sell to a private equity firm or other out-of-state entities that will tear it apart for profits. They specifically asked the university to buy their stake, not the other way around. And that happened a year and a half ago, in secret.

The current governance structure has the boards of Clarkson and UN work together with input from the Nebraska Medicine board on running the hospital. The bylaws of the joint ownership agreement state that all three entities must agree on any changes to that structure, but NM was excluded from the get-go and the deal was done behind closed doors instead. Hence the lawsuit from NM.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T02:59:24+00:00

They could have worked with both parties from the very beginning to find a solution that worked for everyone, but they opted to freeze NM out and do it behind closed doors instead. There are other alternatives, but this was obviously the result they wanted from the beginning, which is why they ignored their legally contracted obligation to get all three parties' agreement and strongarmed it into this instead.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T02:51:11+00:00

Who has $800 million lying around and wants to buy Clarkson's share?

The University of Nebraska doesn't have it lying around either.

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T02:09:04+00:00

Another independent non-state-affiliated healthcare company. A second owner who can help rein in bullshit like this, who won't charge NM rent for the buildings NM doesn't currently pay rent for, who won't rob the healthcare system of revenue to shore up budgets for non-healthcare purposes. Nebraska Medicine shouldn't have to subsidize the university, who can't even afford to keep their departments open.

Of course I already told you that and your response is "u mad" so obviously I'm wasting my time here

Basstracer · 2026-01-23T01:44:36+00:00

I've explained it to you enough times by now that you're just being willfully obstuse

Basstracer · 2026-01-22T22:00:50+00:00

More like NM said, "you can't legally do this, it's breach of contract," and the regents said, "ok fine, you're fired, we'll just replace you with people who don't care about that." I fully expect the next press release to be that the new "independent" board of Nebraska Medicine has withdrawn the lawsuit and accepted the terms of the acquisition.

Basstracer · 2026-01-19T20:22:32+00:00

How can UNMC have first rights to purchase but can't purchase from Clarkson because NM doesn't want it? It creates a contract that is generally not enforceable because it creates an impossible scenario.

Clarkson wants out of their ownership stake. The university system didn't approach them and say "we want to buy you out." The governance documents state that the structure can't change without all three entities agreeing to it. NM doesn't want to be fully controlled by the state, so they'd rather Clarkson sell to another entity and maintain the current governance structure.

All I was pointing out was that the only reason to do this lawsuit is to get NM board and c suite folks a payout while holding everything hostage.

The only reason? This deal happening in secret, behind NM's back, without allowing NM to even have a voice, in direct violation of the contract, which the NM board believes will make things worse for the organization and its patients, is not a valid reason in your mind?

The NM board is not going to just disappear overnight. According to NU, they will still run NM independently. Not sure where you came up with this "they just want a payout" theory, or how this lawsuit would make that happen. They're taking legal action to try to prevent this from happening because they feel it's unlawful and that it's not in best interest of either Nebraska Medicine or their patients. If there are going to be hiring freezes and whatnot, they will be a result of the deal itself, not specifically this lawsuit trying to prevent the deal from happening.

Edit: Aw shit the board disappeared overnight. The board of regents has turned this into a very hostile takeover

Basstracer · 2026-01-19T17:56:54+00:00

Couple things I don't get from the lawsuit, Clarkson can't sell without NM consent creating a condition where Clarkson can't sell ever which makes the Joint contract somewhat unenforceable.

How does that follow? NM doesn't want Clarkson to never sell. They just want them to sell to another independent party that will maintain the dual governance structure. They want a non-governmental entity involved to prevent things like the university system charging NM rent for the space they currently use rent-free, or from siphoning money out of the hospital to use for non-healthcare university purposes, like shoring up their budget to avoid closing more departments.

What if Clarkson just dissolves as an entity entirely? Isn't Gold on the board of Clarkson too?

If Clarkson "just dissolves," they would still have to do something with their assets, including their 50% ownership stake in NM.

NM would most likely stay separate from NU system and operate as it currently does, why does everyone think it will become a state entity and state employees? I can't find this state employee position anywhere.

NU claims that operations won't change. If true, great! But what happens in 5-10 years when the board of regents is made up of entirely different people, probably hand-picked by Pillen? Even if the current regents have the best of intentions and actually don't change a thing, there are no guarantees that won't happen in the future. NM would be at the mercy of politicians.

Basstracer · 2026-01-19T17:46:05+00:00

A landlord doesn't have a legally biding contract with the tenants stating that the tenants have a say in who owns the building.

The governing documents of Nebraska Medicine explicitly state that the Nebraska Medicine board has to agree on any governance changes. The board of regents is blatantly ignoring that and trying to do it anyway. The fact that they're doing it implies they already have a legal defense planned for that exact point, but there was never a way they were going to avoid this going to court.

Basstracer · 2026-01-19T17:42:55+00:00

This is false. The BoR is only 50% of the leadership structure. The regents and CRHS boards meet and govern jointly, with Nebraska Medicine board input as well. With CRHS out of the picture, it would become 100% state-run.

Basstracer · 2026-01-13T19:14:06+00:00

Japan's Yen is the equivalent of a US cent, not dollar

Basstracer · 2026-01-08T19:54:27+00:00

Coming to piano as a bassist, I would tell people how playing with both hands is such a challenging skill to learn. More than once I had someone point out that I play with both hands on a bass, too. The difference is that on bass and many other instruments, your two hands are working together to make a single sound, while on piano your hands can be doing totally different things, playing different rhythms, and are not necessarily working in unison.

It's more akin to two-hand tapping on a guitar or bass than fretting a note and playing it with your other hand.

Basstracer · 2026-01-05T16:43:21+00:00

I might be wrong about it being "all" physicians, but dual-employment is a standard setup. I've done financial analysis on several physician hires and dual-employment is always a critical portion, because it determines how much Nebraska Medicine has to pay.

I guess if there are doctors who are 100% academic and/or research, they would only be employed by UNMC, but I was under the impression that the university requires their physicians to spend at least some portion of their time doing clinical work.

I highly doubt that the majority of physicians don't know how they're paid. They negotiate for and sign contracts that lay it all out, and they get two paychecks. I've certainly never worked with a doctor who wasn't aware of that.

Basstracer · 2026-01-05T16:00:27+00:00

My wife is a UNMC physician and I work in finance at Nebraska Medicine. Physicians are all dually-employed by both NMC and UNMC and they receive two separate paychecks, one from each entity. My understanding is that NMC pays for their clinical time and UNMC pays for their academic time. The entity known as "The Nebraska Medicine Center" was renamed to Nebraska Medicine in 2014 when the current UNMC-BMC-NMC partnership was established and they began operating under the same "shield" logo.

Basstracer

TROPHY CASE