SURPRISE BENEFIT

Johnson told The Herald Friday that Omega had been much more successful in getting money from Medicaid than Jackson anticipated. She said she had contacted procurement and asked that the Omega contract be sent to the board. "For one reason or another, it kept getting delayed. They needed more information or one thing or another," Johnson said.

On Oct. 6, Omega Chief Executive Ann Fierro e-mailed Johnson: "Hi, Sandra, any update on the status?" Johnson responded: "We contacted procurement and are awaiting a response."

"We thought it would be before the board in September, then October, then November," Johnson told The Herald. "Procurement said it had to be put in Lawson," the new software system, "or they needed more information."

Over several months, Omega pestered Jackson about getting paid for its growing bills. Cherry says Johnson eventually stopped answering e-mails and they went to the procurement people. On Dec. 12, Omega says it sent a letter to John Copeland, chairman of the Public Health Trust, and Angel Medina, vice chairman. Omega says it didn't get an answer.

Lucas, the procurement chief, said his people didn't learn about Omega's huge sums until December. They asked for more information and that's why it wasn't presented to the board in January. In February, he planned to present the contract to the board during a revenue cycle workshop, but that was canceled, pushing Omega back to the March meeting, by which time Jackson's economic crisis was red hot and board members were upset about any spending proposals.

"I knew there'd be hell to pay," Lucas said. "But we couldn't delay it." Omega had agreed to reduce its fee to 33 percent of the amount recovered, but the board demanded to know why millions had been spent without its approval.

"Yes, it was a discrepancy," Lucas told the board. "We've already to told them to stop [work] March 15." He said Sandra Johnson hadn't told his department about the huge bills Omega was running up. "We didn't have a way to know."

Board members were not mollified.

"We have said several times: Stop bringing these retro-approvals," Martin Zilber said.

AN IMPASSE

The board took no action on the Omega demand for $4.3 million.

Omega, which has 50 employees, is now talking to lawyers.

‘‘This has been a tremendous financial drain," Cherry said. "We put in all of our resources to help Jackson. We are now in danger of going under because they haven't paid their bills."

The same day that the board refused to approve the Omega deal, Jackson Health System Chief Executive Eneida Roldan had prepared to summit another $99,000 contract. This one was with Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, a Tennessee company specializing in healthcare public affairs for hospitals in need of crisis management.

Jim DeFede of WFOR-CBS4 had said the day before that Roldan was bringing in the company and quoted Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez's dismay about the financially strapped hospital spending money on public relations.

NO HIRE

When the Omega deal was rejected, a board aide had copies on her desk for Trust members of the proposed Risk Management and Communication Plan, which was scheduled for discussion from 10:45 a.m. to noon.

Roldan, however, never introduced the item. After the meeting, Roldan said she had decided against hiring the group.

"We were looking for solutions," she said, because the negative publicity about Jackson's financial woes was causing patients and the employees to be "very scared."

David Jarrard said his company worked with Jackson three or four days. ‘‘It is not our role to replace anyone. We assist and move on."

After the criticism from the mayor, "we became a distraction," and Roldan decided not to hire them. ‘‘A contract was never signed," she said.

On that Friday when Roldan was considering the deal with Jarrard Phillips, Vice President of Communications Robert Alonso quit. He told The Herald it had nothing to do with the Jarrard team. ‘‘I want all the best for Jackson," he said. "But I really want to move on and pursue other options."