In liberal Massachusetts?
"the state set repayment rates so low they do not cover the cost of such medical care.... mostly low-income or elderly"
"6 hospitals to sue state over payment shortfalls; Call for parity with Hub facilities" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | December 1, 2009
Six community hospitals, squeezed by the economic downturn and the Massachusetts budget crunch, are set to file a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court this morning seeking millions of dollars from the state for unpaid health care services.
The suit charges that Massachusetts violated a law requiring adequate reimbursement to hospitals for patients insured by the government. The hospitals contend the state set repayment rates so low they do not cover the cost of such medical care. The plaintiffs are part of a group of health care providers known as “disproportionate share hospitals,’’ institutions at which at least 63 percent of patients, mostly low-income or elderly, are covered by public insurance plans such as Medicaid or Medicare. Many of the hospitals are losing money, or barely breaking even, after taking on thousands of patients newly insured by public plans under the state’s 2006 health care overhaul....
Yeah, and they are so proud of this increasing debacle!
Don't get sick in Massachushitts, folks!
The hospitals, serving regions stretching from the Merrimack Valley to Cape Cod to the Berkshires, maintain they have absorbed a combined shortfall of more than $100 million in the past three years, the difference between the cost of care provided to Medicaid patients and the amount the hospitals were reimbursed. That has resulted in hundreds of layoffs and millions of dollars in cost cuts, they say....
But BANKS and WARS get TRILLIONS, no problem!!!
Related: State Government On Probation
Did you see where the tax loot is going?
The hospitals in the lawsuit are Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Holyoke Medical Center, Merrimack Valley Hospital in Haverhill, and Quincy Medical Center. They are all midsized hospitals whose executives argue state government shows preferential treatment to Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance, two providers that treat a similar patient population, but receive more money proportionately....
Yeah, the CITY gets the $$$ and the RURAL COMMUNITIES (like mine) get NOTHING!
In a reflection of how the state’s budget crisis has rippled through the health care sector, Boston Medical Center filed suit against Bigby’s office in July, accusing state officials of cutting payments for treatment of thousands of low-income patients. That complaint is pending in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.
Related: Boston Medical Bonus
And they were running deficits, huh?
Like where your tax dollars are going, Bay-Stater?
Michael F. Collins, chief executive of Merrimack Valley Hospital, a 110-bed hospital that has had to cut the equivalent of 30 full-time jobs in the past year, said the state’s financial woes have fallen largely on hospitals like his, in areas of high unemployment that lack the political clout Boston area hospitals carry on Beacon Hill....
That explains the LOOOOOOOONG WAITS!
At Holyoke Medical Center, the hospital’s endowment trust fund has tumbled to $3 million from $12 million a decade ago and it has become increasingly difficult to borrow money to replace old equipment, said chief executive Hank J. Porten. Porten said the 212-bed hospital, where 71 percent of patients are covered by Medicaid or other public insurance, has been forced to lay off 88 employees over the past year.
You saw where the tax loot is going in this state, right, readers?
Citing Holyoke’s high poverty rate, he said: “There’s not a lot of other places people here can go for care. Long term, we have to get a solution to our funding.’’
Yup, YOUR NATIONAL MODEL, folks!!!
Related:
- The Massachusetts Model: Working Or Not?
- The Massachusetts Model: Going Out of Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Crazy Coverage
- The Massachusetts Model: Immigrant Insult
- The Massachusetts Model: Profit and the Paycheck
- The Massachusetts Model: Doctors' Diet
- The Massachusetts Model: By the Numbers
- The Massachusetts Model: Treasurer's Assessment
- The Massachusetts Model: Care-Keeping Costs
- The Massachusetts Model: Mass. Hospitality
- The Massachusetts Model: Lessons Learned
- The Massachusetts Model: Non-Compliant Complacency
- The Massachusetts Model: Office Visit
- The Massachusetts Model: Student Shakedown
- The Massachusetts Model: Medicaid Mess
- The Massachusetts Model: Destroying Small Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Upset Stomach
