Article in Home News Tribune

Middlesex County's Home News Tribune today published a front-page article on the St. Peter's "church plan" crisis. Read it here. Big thanks to Larry Kaplan for ensuring that this article got published!

Besides giving much-appreciated exposure to the issue, the article serves as a reminder of a few things:

• The IRS has no timetable for deciding on St. Peter's application for "church plan" status. When St. Peter's submitted their application, the IRS had a moratorium in force on granting such applications; now St. Peter's is one of the first institutions being considered for such status since the moratorium was lifted. A decision either way is far from automatic. This means that pressure brought to bear by, for example, contacting Congress can still have a big impact.
• Back in December, St. Peter's CEO Ronald Rak promised to share by the end of February the hospital's strategy "to protect your retirement dollars, with the help of new outside experts." The hospital has three weeks to make good on that promise.

Keep in mind that outside retirement industry consultants helped get us into this mess in the first place. Note also that the chairman of the hospital's board of trustees, Donald Daniels, heads a benefits consulting firm with a specialty in Catholic hospitals.

Win, lose, or draw, we'll be here to help in any way we can.