It is strange when you look at how medical money got re-distributed as well as on Wall Street. Different hospital systems had different models and let’s face it Kaiser was ahead of the game as for years they 
have had both care and insurance under one umbrella and this the model that others are trying to go to. Outside of a closed system, trying to recreate that model is not easy either. Four hospitals in Northern California and two in the Los Angeles area will be sold as they are strapped for money. On the other side of the coin we have UPMC having excess profits of one billion a year with the City of Pittsburgh filing a lawsuit to take their non profit status away as the city needs the money.
You can read about Mayo who’s not cash strapped, but they see income going down and with taking in about $9 billion and having excess revenues of $367 million as their profit with $300 million of that figure being gifts, well you get my drift and they are looking to do the medical record deal with United Labs to where they can sell crunched data.
Of course there’s the Medicare fines too that can enter in here with any high rates of avoidable re-admissions for heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia. There’s also mention of 2 children’s hospitals uniting to save money and stay in business below. Medicaid payments are at the very bottom of the barrel when you compare compensation with other states. Well let’s hope they find a buyer for the hospitals. It used to be easier to roll out a model with regulations and fines for all hospitals but not anymore since there such diversity on financial health anymore. Maybe CMS is starting to take note? BD
The new system is similar to Kaiser Permanente's model, which coordinates the work of its primary care physicians, specialists, hospitals, pharmacies and laboratories. The end-to-end experience for patients enables Kaiser to improve the quality of care and find efficiencies that reduce costs.
"When you move to those kinds of models -- as Kaiser has done so successfully -- where you handle many patients on an outpatient basis, you reduce the need for patient hospitalization," said Mark Laret, CEO of UCSF Medical Center and the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.
"If hospitals cannot adapt and play under the new rules," said Maribeth Shannon, a director at the California HealthCare Foundation, "it will be a challenge for them to survive."
Just this month in the Bay Area, the financially strapped nonprofit Daughters of Charity Health System, based in Los Altos Hills, announced it will sell its six hospitals -- four in the Bay Area and two in Los Angeles. And last week, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and Children's Hospital in Oakland formally linked arms to help broaden their services and cut costs. In October, Sutter Health transferred ownership of the beleaguered San Leandro Hospital to the Alameda Health System.
The law also reduces Medicare payments to hospitals that report excessively high rates of avoidable readmissions within 30 days of discharge for patients who were treated for heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia.
Just this month in the Bay Area, the financially strapped nonprofit Daughters of Charity Health System, based in Los Altos Hills, announced it will sell its six hospitals -- four in the Bay Area and two in Los Angeles. And last week, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital and Children's Hospital in Oakland formally linked arms to help broaden their services and cut costs. In October, Sutter Health transferred ownership of the beleaguered San Leandro Hospital to the Alameda Health System.
http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_25006427/new-health-care-law-hospitals-pressured-slash-costs
0 comments :
Post a Comment