Mercy Hospital is the last Catholic hospital in the Miami area and with keeping the Catholic healthcare ethics, no abortions will be provided here. We are seeing more and more hospitals moving from the non profit areas into profit, due to economic conditions for the most part, in other words, running out of money. Ironically we now have this NON PROFIT association to meet and discuss and determine HOW TO MAKE A PROFIT, what’s up with this? Give this some real thought as to where 
we are going today.
How Big Are Private Equity Investments in Healthcare – Large Enough to Create a “Non-Profit” Trade Association To Talk About How to “Profit”
As posted yesterday, private equity firms are considering hospitals a “good buy” to move in and update operations and turn the facilities into money making hospitals. The Caritas Hospital purchase even has a clause in their contract which allows a buy out of the “Catholic religion” ethics if it gets in the way of making money and we may probably have not heard the last of this issue as the purchase agreement moves forward. If you stop and look around you can see where insurance executives are going, to private equity firms. BD
Former CEO of United HealthCare Joins Private Equity Firm as an Operating Partner With Focus on Healthcare
In what's likely to mean a major shift in the region's hospital competition, Mercy, Miami-Dade's only Catholic hospital, is on the verge of being sold to the for-profit HCA hospital chain.
Mercy's board announced Thursday it had signed a letter of intent to sell. The price was not disclosed. A joint press release said the ``transaction is expected to close as soon as possible.''
Under the agreement, Mercy Hospital will continue to operate as a Catholic hospital, said Chief Executive Manuel Anton. Among other things, that means no abortions will be performed at the facility. The abortion issue derailed a merger with Baptist Health South Florida in 1998.
The Spiritual Care Department will be maintained and employees will be trained in ``Catholic healthcare,'' according to the agreement.
HCA buying Mercy Hospital - Business - MiamiHerald.com
Medical Quack,
ReplyDeleteNot-for-profit hospitals are ripe for takeover by private equity, as hospitals are no doubt one of the winners in health reform. Not-for-profit doesn't imply well run and efficient use of capital. Private equity sees an opportunity to make money - courtesy of health reform.
With the government eventually eliminating private medical insurance in due time, insurance company CEOs need to go somewhere. Who better would know the ins and outs of provider network pricing, insurance reimbursements and government contracts.
If health reform remains as is, this will be the second round of "Money Driven Medicine" http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Money-Driven-Medicine/Maggie-Mahar/e/9780060765330/?itm=1 LBJs Great Society, including Medicare, was the first wave. Mr. Obama's is the second.
Government payments directly to providers will provide unabated cash flow in perpetuity. Private equity knows where the money is. So does the administration.
Even before hospitals came on the block private equity was first looking at the transactional side of the business, buying up 3rd party payers.
ReplyDeletehttp://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/02/trizetto-group-owned-by-apax-partners.html
Hospitals are the 2nd party of the equation if you will as the payer management system will be set in place for risk management and there are a few insurers playing in the game with subsidiaries, so they are not lost and profit in there too.
The issue here is the balance between good care and risk management and if and how the 2 can live together without one having an advantage or substantial control over the other side. I said about a year ago by default we could end up with a single payer system so the rest I assume will play out and let us know.