Lender: State meddled in audits
One year after the state Department of Banking first accused an East Hartford mortgage company of operating illegally, there is still no sign of a hearing in a case the company CEO calls “abusive regulation.”
But even as Connecticut banking regulators build their case, they have called or contacted auditors in at least a dozen states, urging them to step up or launch their own inquiries into the company, 1st Alliance Lending, according to the founder and CEO, John DiIorio.
If true, and I’ve confirmed some documentation of it, that would be highly unusual, inappropriate at best and perhaps an example of improper interference.
The Department of Banking denies it has tried to influence any other state, even as DiIorio describes such interactions in detail. What the department is saying, in documents, is that it wants to revoke 1st Alliance’s license to operate in Connecticut.
That would essentially shut down a company that does business in 46 states, all from its home office, and had 178 employees before the flap began. The company had plans to expand further with millions of dollars in aid from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
That expansion is now nixed as 1st Alliance is down to 62 employees, fighting for its life.
Ahearing was scheduled for Feb. 7, then postponed as the banking department sought more information — claiming the company was not cooperating with the investigation. Now the department is demanding “millions of pages of documents,” DiIiorio and others at 1st Alliance say, in a case department officials called “open and shut” just a few months ago.
Asettlement, the usual way of wrapping up these sorts of regulatory matters, seems impossible as both sides have hardened their positions. The company hired Ross Garber, a lawyer who has represented four governors, including former Gov. John G. Rowland.
I wrote about this 1st Alliance case in November, even before the department issued its Dec. 5 notice of license revocation; then again in January, when the department accused 1st Alliance of withholding records and selling mortgages improperly.
It was already a rare
year, for reassurances Nuvance will remain fully committed to the UVM relationship, even as it sets up the new medical school at Marist.
Dire need with physician shortage
Connecticut is home to two top medical schools at Yale University and the University of Connecticut. The former is tied tightly to Yale-New Haven Health System whose subsidiaries include Bridgeport Hospital and Greenwich Hospital, while the latter is connected to the UConn School of Medicine and UConn Health’s John Dempsey Hospital, both located in Farmington.
Quinnipiac University created a third medical school in 2013, focused on primary care practitioners, with the school processing more than 7,500 applications in the past year for just over 90 slots in this fall’s entering class. Since then, 11 medical schools have gained LCME accreditation, with CUNY Medical School in New York City the lone Northeast institution to do so.
Last month in Hartford, a contingent of UConn medical students, graduates and staff weighed in on the importance of the state expanding its educational pipeline for the industry and opportunities for graduates to stay close to home, including Milford native Dr. Roshni Patel who pursued a UConn track giving her additional training for work in cities with patients not getting adequate care under the current health system.
“I was able to get an affordable — yet quality — education in my home state — this was really a huge motivating factor for me to actually stay in Connecticut post-residency,” Patel told lawmakers in March. “I hope to settle here long-term and serve in both a primary care and academic setting — this way I can serve as a primary care physician for patients in Connecticut and fill an essential gap in care, something that we are in dire need of with the physician shortage in primary care.”
This week, the Association of American Medical Colleges projected the Northeast will require 11,000 additional physicians by 2032, the time frame at which point Marist and Nuvance medical students would be getting licensed after completing their clinical residencies.
Broken out by relative populations and not factoring in demographic considerations like age, that would mean Connecticut would need about 700 additional doctors in the coming dozen years. The association indicated demand will be high for both general practitioners and specialty physicians and surgeons.
One perk Marist medical students may get is the opportunity to interact on an ongoing basis with the CEO of a major hospital system, with Murphy still making the rounds practicing neurology, with 30 years experience focusing on movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease. Murphy said he relishes the opportunities that gives him to interact directly with medical residents embarking on their own careers.
“I put my badge away — it just says ‘Murphy’ on my jacket,” he said. “It gives me the opportunity … to say, ‘how are the rotations?’ or, ‘what’s it like in the (operating room) for a student?’ And it really is, to a certain extent, like that show ‘Undercover Boss’ where you really do get a peek at the organization from somebody who’s young, enthusiastic (and) idealistic. ... We were all in their shoes.”