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This story is amazing. BCBSNC CEO is caught on video driving ****faced with his two kids in the car and causing an accident. According to WRAL Blue Cross is "standing by" him.
Supposedly he did a rehab stint but it certainly begs the question, they can't find anyone else? And he's a doctor, his medical license is in danger. AND had his kids in the car.
I'm sure they are looking into this, but this happened in June and we are learning about this now? Did BCBS suppress all of this info and especially the cellphone video? We all know cellphone videos come out on the internet very quickly. That's a bigger issue, a larger company trying to hide things, but what's new?
People are fallible. In Wake County there are multiple DUI arrests every day. Some of them say stupid things when they get arrested, or worse. Should every one of them get fired? I don't believe so. It depends on what they do for a living. A LEO who gets a DUI, yeah, I can see that. A 21 year-old who works at Starbucks and blows a .09 after partying too much on Glenwood South, should he or she get fired from Starbucks as a consequence? There's always a tendency to say off-with-their-heads, but that's not justice. Watch the opening scene of The Godfather again, and remember, this could happen to someone in your family, your neighbor, etc.
The guy has been through treatment, they say, and his court case is docketed for October 8 in Randolph County (court calendars are public record). He's presumed innocent until found guilty, and I'm 99% confident that the Randolph County DA and the judge who hears the case won't cut him any slack just because he's CEO of BCBSNC. Not now, anyway, because reporters will be in the courtroom. Maybe the NC Medical Board lowers the boom on him, but we can react to that when and if they do. Besides he doesn't have to be a licensed MD to be CEO of an insurance company.
Did the BCBSNC board screw up by not going public with this sooner? Maybe, but that's the board at fault not the guy himself.
Is the company in Washington having second thoughts about the deal and seizing on the opportunity to back out? I wonder.
People are fallible. In Wake County there are multiple DUI arrests every day. Some of them say stupid things when they get arrested, or worse. Should every one of them get fired? I don't believe so. It depends on what they do for a living. A LEO who gets a DUI, yeah, I can see that. A 21 year-old who works at Starbucks and blows a .09 after partying too much on Glenwood South, should he or she get fired from Starbucks as a consequence? There's always a tendency to say off-with-their-heads, but that's not justice. Watch the opening scene of The Godfather again, and remember, this could happen to someone in your family, your neighbor, etc.
The guy has been through treatment, they say, and his court case is docketed for October 8 in Randolph County (court calendars are public record). He's presumed innocent until found guilty, and I'm 99% confident that the Randolph County DA and the judge who hears the case won't cut him any slack just because he's CEO of BCBSNC. Not now, anyway, because reporters will be in the courtroom. Maybe the NC Medical Board lowers the boom on him, but we can react to that when and if they do. Besides he doesn't have to be a licensed MD to be CEO of an insurance company.
Did the BCBSNC board screw up by not going public with this sooner? Maybe, but that's the board at fault not the guy himself.
Is the company in Washington having second thoughts about the deal and seizing on the opportunity to back out? I wonder.
The guy had his 9 and 7 year old kids in the car and there's video evidence. You don't "stand by" someone who does that.
He was obviously completely tanked. This isn't someone that had a few beers and blew a .08. Did you watch the video?
DUIs in this day and age reflect an almost insane amount of laziness and lack of respect/entitlement. Uber and Lyft are readily available (I have got a Lyft ride out here in "podunk" WF at 3am even knowing I stopped drinking 5 hours before; the driver came up from Raleigh to drive me 2 miles home).
The "do you know who I am" is always a good touch to add - brah... why don't you tell us who you think you are?!?
As for the question about losing his job, I can only leverage my personal experience, but my current employer, right in the employee handbook, flat out states that any arrest of me can and will be used in a determination to continue employing me or not. I obviously can't speak to how BCBS does things, but lets not make it sound like it's completely unheard of for companies to set forth rules governing "employee conduct" in their ability to hire/fire people.
Yes, I've seen the video. Is it admissible at trial under the NC Rules of Evidence? Let's wait and see. And if the case is dismissed on a technicality, do you fire a guy who hasn't been convicted?
Sure, every large company has an HR policy that allows people to be dismissed for something like this. But those policies are unnecessary. NC is an at-will employment jurisdiction. A company in NC can let someone go for almost any reason under the sun except discrimination as defined in state or federal law. Winning a wrongful-discharge case in NC is virtually impossible. Just because companies can do something, however, doesn't mean that they do or they should. I worked for a large company in NC for 22 years and I can tell you that not every employee who got a DUI was canned, even the high-ranking folks.
Was his behavior reprehensible and inexcusable? Definitely. Theoretically he could do jail time (it's an A1 misdemeanor in NC, just one level short of a felony). Will the court do that? Let's wait and see.
I'm not arguing that he should be let off the hook. I'm simply saying (1) we should let the courts and the NC Medical Board do their thing first and (2) the guy should be treated consistently. His profession is not one that holds him to a higher standard. Now, if the guy has a repeat offense, that's a different story.
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