Obamacare Stops Construction at 45 Physician Qwned Hospitals Nationwid

[bonnie]

Obamacare Stops Construction at 45 Physician Qwned Hospitals Nationwide

Rick Moran

What a superlative idea! Let's throw thousands of construction workers out of work and make it harder to access quality medical care at the same time.

Man, those Democrats are 6 times brilliant, eh?

Under the headline, "Construction Stops at Physician Hospitals," Politico reports today that "Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy or to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing.

Kenneth Artz of the Heartland Institute explains, "Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding." Politico adds, "Friday [New Year's Eve] marked the last day physician-owned hospitals could get Medicare certification covering their new or expanded hospitals, one of the latest provisions of the reform law to go into effect."

This little-noticed but particularly egregious aspect of Obamacare is, by all accounts, a concession to the powerful American Hospital Association (AHA), a supporter of Obamacare, which prefers to have its member hospitals operate without competition from hospitals owned by doctors.

Dr. Michael Russell, president of Physician Hospitals of America, which has filed suit to try to stop this selective building-ban from going into effect, says, "There are so many regulations [in Obamacare] and they are so onerous and intrusive that we believe that the section [section 6001] was deliberately designed so no physician owned hospital could successfully comply."

It's not a bug; it's a feature.

[Dr. Shane]

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. God bless our wonderful, fabulous, merciful, kind, compassionate and loving President. Things like this almost make me want to vote from him again.

Big thumbs up to the O man.

Doctor's hospitals are one of the biggest shams and rip-offs in the medical industry. Only God the Father, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit knows how much these shysters have caused the cost of healthcare to increase in the US. This is just fantastic news. I only wish they would shut down the doctor's hospitals now in existance.

This is how it works. A disreputable and unethical businessman or woman gets together with a group of doctors and builds a hospital. The group of doctors is often as large as 500. All these doctors have to sign a non-competition agreement so none of the doctors can do any procedure in their office (like x-rays) that is done at the hospital. Nor can they send their patients to any competitor of the hospital (for anything like an MRI or CAT-Scan). The hospital, of course, is more expensive.

For example, in the area I was in, all the urologists wanted to send me to the doctor's hospital for a vasectomy. The cost at the doctor's hospital was $1,800. A doctor that attends our church referred me to an OB/GYN who does vasectomies. It cost me $600.

This is really good news. I am glad than when Obama got doctor's hospitals in his sights, he pulled the trigger. What wonderful news!

[bonnie]

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. God bless our wonderful, fabulous, merciful, kind, compassionate and loving President. Things like this almost make me want to vote from him again.

[bonnie]

GOD bLESS OBAMA,PUBLC HOSPITALS CLOSING,

April 5, 2009

The Recession's Impact: Closing The Clinic

60 Minutes: Bad Economy Leaves Cancer Patients Without Health Insurance In Dire Straits

The Clinic Is Closed

The current economic recession is affecting our nation's most vulnerable. Scott Pelley reports on a county hospital in Nev. that is closing an outpatient cancer clinic due to budget cuts.

This can be expected when there are more that don't pay because of public funding than those that do pay for their medical care

Chemo On A Shoestring

In a budget crunch Nevada cut cancer care. Local doctors turned a storeroom into a chemotherapy unit.

(CBS) In the economic crisis, public hospitals are needed now more than ever. If you're down on your luck without insurance, the county hospital can be your last resort.

Recently thousands of letters went out across Las Vegas telling cancer patients that the only public hospital in the state was closing its outpatient clinic for chemotherapy.

It's the next thing in the recession - communities cutting back on services like schools or cops or public hospitals because tax revenues have fallen with the economy.

One of the charity patients who got that letter in Las Vegas is Helen Sharp, who didn't realize how a crash on Wall Street might threaten her life.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't want to die. I shouldn't have to die. This is a county hospital. This is for people that, like me, many people have lost their insurance, have not any other resources. I mean I was a responsible person. I bought my house. I put money away. I raised my two children. And now I have nothing. You know my house isn’t worth anything. I have no money. And I said 'What do I do, but what do all these other people do after me?' 'And they said we don't know,'" Sharp told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.

Sharp, 63, has been fighting lymphoma since July. She's not working because of her illness and has no insurance. Last year, she received charity care at the county hospital, University Medical Center. She was one of 2,000 patients who got the letter.

"Dear patient, we regret to inform you that the Nevada Cancer Institute will no longer provide contract oncology services at University Medical Center," Sharp read.

Since December 31, there has been no chemotherapy for new outpatients.

Asked what reading this letter meant to her, Sharp told Pelley, "A death sentence."

University Medical Center is the safety net for two million people; Las Vegas bets its life on it. UMC is a teaching hospital, the only fully equipped trauma center, the only burn unit, the only transplant unit, and the primary source of charity care in a city that has fallen on the hardest times it has ever seen.

"Obviously, our gaming and tourism is tanking. The construction industry has been decimated. And all of those things cause big, gaping holes in the state budget. The hardest-hit area for us was the Medicaid budget," Kathy Silver, the hospital's CEO, explained.

Silver had signed that letter patients received.

Literally overnight, UMC's budget was cut by $21 million. "And we were already scheduled or budgeted to lose $51 million. And so, when you layered on $21 million on top of that, that brought our loss, or anticipated loss, to $72 million," Silver told Pelley.

The $21 million was cut by the legislature when tax revenues went bust. Nevada is number one in foreclosures; unemployment is over 10 percent, double what it was last year and climbing.

Silver told 60 Minutes she had to defend her unique services like the trauma center, so she chose to sacrifice services that are duplicated at private hospitals, even though patients may not be able to afford them.

Asked what services she had closed, Silver said, "We no longer provide prenatal services. We closed the outpatient oncology program. We cancelled a contract for outpatient dialysis. We closed the dedicated high risk obstetrical unit that we had. And we stopped doing outpatient mammography."

60 Minutes was there in February when the women's cancer clinic closed.

"When the hospital first informed you that the outpatient oncology clinic was closing, what did you think?" Pelley asked Dr. Nick Spiritos, who treats ovarian and uterine cancers.

"How can you do this to cancer patients? They're dying. If we don't provide them care, their outcome is guaranteed. They're going to die," he replied.

Pelley spoke to several of those patients. Roy Scales, a laid off security guard with lung cancer, went to the hospital and got the news in person.

"I walked in, the lady looked down and said 'Well, I don't see anything down here for you.' Then she looked in the computer and she said, 'Oh, you were supposed to have an oncology today but it's been canceled. Our oncology department is closed,'" Scales remembered.

"They turned you away at the door," Pelley remarked.

"They turned me away at the door without telling me anything," Scales said.

Asked what he was thinking when he walked out of the hospital, Scales told Pelley, "I mean where am I going to find help? I mean, I'm messing with a disease that will kill you. And for every day that I don't get medical input, I mean, this advances on my body."

[there buster]

Quote:

God bless our wonderful, fabulous, merciful, kind, compassionate and loving President.

That's really creepy.

[bonnie]

Keep it up Obama you will soon have it

By SUZANNE SATALINE

Faced with mounting debt and looming costs from the new federal health-care law, many local governments are leaving the hospital business, shedding public facilities that can be the caregiver of last resort.

Peninsula Clarion

A patient and care giver at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, Alaska, where the government is considering a partnership with the for-profit LHP Hospital Group of Texas.

Officials in Lauderdale County, Ala., this spring opted to transfer their 91-year-old Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital and other properties to a for-profit company after struggling to satisfy an angry bond insurer.

"We were next to knocking on bankruptcy's door,'' said Rhea Fulmer, a Lauderdale County commissioner who approved the deal with RegionalCare Hospital Partners, of Brentwood, Tenn, but with trepidation. She said the county had no guarantee the company would improve care in the decades to come. "Time will tell.''

Clinton County, Ohio, in May sold its hospital to the same company. Officials in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, are weighing a joint venture with a for-profit company, similar to one the same company made with Bannock County, Idaho. And Prince George's County, Md., is seeking a buyer for its medical complex.

More than a fifth of the nation's 5,000 hospitals are owned by governments and many are drowning in debt caused by rising health-care costs, a spike in uninsured patients, cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and payments on construction bonds sold in fatter times. Because most public hospitals tend to be solo operations, they don't enjoy the economies of scale, or more generous insurance contracts, which bolster revenue at many larger nonprofit and for-profit systems.

Local officials also predict an expensive future as new requirements—for technology, quality accounting and care coordination—start under the overhaul, which became law in March.

Moody's Investors Service said in April that many standalone hospitals won't have the resources to invest in information technology or manage bundled payments well. Many nonprofits have bad credit ratings and in a tight credit market cannot borrow money, either. Meantime, the federal government is expected to cut aid to hospitals.

"We've been hit by that whiplash recently, with industries closing down and the number of insured growing less," said J.D. Mosteller, the attorney for Barnwell County, S.C., which is considering selling its hospital.

The county has raised property taxes in recent years to bolster the hospital, which spends more than $1 million just to pay emergency-room physicians, he said. "We're a county government. We're not set up to run a nursing home or hospital.''

Sales and mergers of public hospitals are hard to quantify; the country had 16 fewer government-owned hospitals in 2008 than 2003, says the American Hospital Association, the result of sales, closings or transfers.

Health-care consultants and financial analysts say the pace of all hospital sales is picking up at a rate not seen since the 1990s, the dawn of managed care. James Burgdorfer, a partner with investment banker Juniper Advisory LLC in Chicago, said most public systems would end in the next two decades because the industry has become too complex for local politicians. "By the nature of their small size, their independence and their political entanglements, they are poorly equipped to survive,'' Mr. Burgdorfer said.

View Full Image

Steve Gates for The Wall Street Journal

Rhea Fulmer voted for the sale of the Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital in Lauderdale County, Ala., to a for-profit operator.

During the five-year period that ended Dec. 31, 2009, $52 billion was used to fund hospital mergers and acquisitions of all types, says Irving Levin Associates of Norwalk, Conn., which tracks health-care deals. This amount exceeds by 140% the total amount of capital committed to fund hospital deals announced in the prior five-year period.

In the first half of 2010, there were 25 deals involving 53 hospitals that were bought or merged, for a total of $3.1 billion, according to Levin Associates. If deals continue apace, it would be the busiest time since 2007, when there were 58 deals involving 149 hospitals totaling $9.3 billion.

Public and nonprofit hospitals—the latter of which represent three-fifths of all U.S. hospitals and are sometimes affiliated with a religious denomination—can be appealing targets for private operators, which are betting that the new federal law will eventually yield more paying, insured customers.

Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, a trade group for chains that own nearly 1,000 for-profit hospitals, said his industry tends to run operations more efficiently, while adding capital.

Most sales include stipulations that the companies keep services, he said. "You've got to provide the array of services that the community expects," he said. "Otherwise you're not going to get the consumers using them.''

Still, skeptics worry that in the hunt for healthy returns, the for-profits will kill expensive programs and close hospitals with poor revenue. Residents in many towns have fretted over the blow to their civic pride and the loss of their history.

The nation's public hospitals rose in different ways. Some were built with philanthropic donations and were sick houses for society's poorest. Many in the west and south rose through loans and grants made possibly by the Hill-Burton Act of 1946. In exchange, public hospitals provide a large amount of free and reduced-priced care. Some are academic medical centers. Many suburban and rural public hospitals provide care to all members of the community, rich and poor.

View Full Image

Steve Gates for The Wall Street Journal

Charlie Wilison at his home in Florence, Alabama. He voted against the sale of the Eliza Coffee Memorial hospital.

Residents of Kenai Peninsula Borough in Alaska are debating in letters to the local papers and on a radio call-in show a proposed joint venture that would sell more than half of 40-year-old Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna to for-profit LHP Hospital Group Inc. of Plano, Texas.

Mayor David Carey is opposed to the move, as are many residents. He worries that LHP may wind up shrinking or closing the 49-bed hospital, forcing residents to travel 150 miles to Anchorage. "Health care is a major economic engine for us. It's the No. 1 employer in the city,'' he said. "The idea that the hospital could be sold again…or even shut down, is unacceptable.''

Ryan Smith, the hospital's CEO, wants to build a cancer center and expand cardiology and a partner would bring needed capital. Mr. Smith, who said the deal's value is about $105 million, said, "Being part of a system could benefit us."

Some counties are looking at Bannock County, Idaho, where residents voted in 2008 to cede control of their 250-bed Portneuf Medical Center, in Pocatello. A foundation now owns 23% of the hospital, while LHP owns 77%. A community benefit board, half chosen by the foundation and half by the company, governs. LHP kicked in $201 million, mostly to finish building a new hospital.

Before the deal, ``not once do I remember [the public hospital] meeting the financial goals that would have allowed us to restructure the hospital,'' said Larry Ghan, a county commissioner. ``The only way we could do it was to go out and find a partner.''

LHP's Ms. Ball said partnerships succeed because the community and the company share equally in decisions.

Journal Communitydiscuss“ Predictable. You shove huge costs on society in the middle of a recession then people will find ways to cut costs. ”

—Don Brazier The Coffee Health Group in northern Alabama has been in debt since the late 1990s, when bonds were sold to buy three health-care properties. In the past two years, Coffee couldn't keep enough cash on hand to satisfy the bond insurer, said Ms. Fulmer, the commissioner. ``If we could not meet our financial obligation, they were going to come in and do it for us,'' she said.

In March, the county agreed to transfer the county's 350-bed hospital, a smaller area hospital and other assets, to RegionalCare, which agreed to pay off the $140 million in debt, recruit doctors and replace equipment. Area residents liked the company's promise to build a new, 300-bed medical center for $250 million.

A spokesman for the company and the hospital didn't return calls.

Charlie Wilson, a member of the public hospital authority voted no. ``Our charity care was quite high and our bad debt was high, too,'' he said. The company's ability to make a profit, he said, ``is going to be a struggle for them.''

Write to Suzanne Sataline at suzanne.sataline@wsj.com

[Dr. Shane]

The reason I had to go to an OB/GYN for a vasectomy is because all of the urologists had been corrupted by the local doctor's hospital.

Stopping doctor's hospitals from being built or expanded will actually increase competition. Doctor's hospitals do not allow competition. Now urologists might actually start doing vasectomies in their office again and competing with hospitals.

Another story of corrupt doctor's hospitals:

My son got injured at school. It looked like he had jammed his finger so I took him to the local night clinic. The told me they couldn't x-ray his finger because they were part of the Doctor's Hospital network. I would have to drive 20 miles to the Doctor's Hospital for the x-ray to be done there. Of course, it would cost three times as much as what an honest (not a partner in a doctor's hospital) doctor would charge for an x-ray taken in a clinic.

[Dr. Shane]

Quote:

God bless our wonderful, fabulous, merciful, kind, compassionate and loving President.

That's really creepy.

You have to feel the love! xx

[bonnie]

Quote:

God bless our wonderful, fabulous, merciful, kind, compassionate and loving President.

Quote:

That's really creepy.

It some ways it should evoke pity for some I guess.But you almost can't help hope they get what they are on their knees begging for.

Almost makes me think of the guy during the campaign,on his knees,gasping for air and repeating "Oh God" over and over at the sight of our earthly "messiah"

[Dr. Shane]

I always gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt and believe Obama deserves that too. That doesn't mean I will vote for him again but I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt. The man is no Richard Nixon - not even a Bill Clinton.

[bonnie]

The reason I had to go to an OB/GYN for a vasectomy is because all of the urologists had been corrupted by the local doctor's hospital.

[bonnie]

Let's not forget the bleeding heart of Michelle Obama as she encouraged college students to a life of serving not for profit careers. What she neglected to tell them her selfless act netted her 350,000.00 per year and she wasn't even required to show up everyday.

Not everyone can be that selfless Thank God

[bonnie]

I always gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt and believe Obama deserves that too. That doesn't mean I will vote for him again but I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt. The man is no Richard Nixon - not even a Bill Clinton.

What you have given Obama is not the benefit of the doubt

[Dr. Shane]

What we are discovering is that not all the the healthcare reform bill is bad. This is a fantastic provision. Maybe in the future they can shut down those doctor's hospitals all together. I just wonder how many millions of dollars we have had to pay in premiums because of those shysters.

[Dr. Shane]

BTW: one of the doctors at our church use to be part of a doctor's hospital but he got out. He describes it as a nightmare.

Thank God for Obama. Finally, someone did something.

[bonnie]

What we are discovering is that not all the the healthcare reform bill is bad. This is a fantastic provision. Maybe in the future they can shut down those doctor's hospitals all together. I just wonder how many millions of dollars we have had to pay in premiums because of those shysters.

The majority do not want Obama's welfare.Far to expensive.

Wonder how many stories are passed from one christian to another about "shysters".People they don't know and have never heard of.

Wonder how many millions down the tube with the shysters we now have.

Just as a little side note I asked a retired Dr,relative of ours about your rather wild statements. Once he quit laughing he said he hoped you had nothing to do with the medical industry in amyway.

[bonnie]

BTW: one of the doctors at our church use to be part of a doctor's hospital but he got out. He describes it as a nightmare.

Thank God for Obama. Finally, someone did something.

Obama has done something all right.

BTW,that statement about your DR at church is about as iron clad as my relative laughing at your foolishness. Especially the part about any man going to a Ob/Gyn for a vasectomy and claiming all uriologists were corrupt.Not sure if he has quit laughing over than yet

[Dr. Shane]

Just as a little side note I asked a retired Dr,relative of ours about your rather wild statements. Once he quit laughing he said he hoped you had nothing to do with the medical industry in anyway.

Actually, I built a doctor's hospital. I know quite a bit about how corrupt they are. Not only do they limit competition, the do blitz advertising with all the local media (radio, TV, newspaper) so people think the doctor's hospital is better quality and the media is bought and paid for so they will not tell the locals the truth behind the scam. Thank our heavenly Father, the Son Jesus Christ and the merciful Holy Spirit that Obama wasn't bought and paid for. The rip-off reign of doctor's hospitals is coming to an end.

[Dr. Shane]

Especially the part about any man going to a Ob/Gyn for a vasectomy and claiming all uriologists were corrupt.

Just in case you didn't grasp it. I contacted every urologist in the two-county area where I live. Some were Catholic and do not do vasectomies. All that do perform vasectomies would only do them at the doctor's hospital. My health insurance would not pay for a vasectomy at a hospital. My health insurance would only pay for a vasectomy to be done at a clinic. So I asked a family doctor that belongs to my church if he knew of a doctor that would do a vasectomy in his clinic and he referred me to an OB/GYN. It is a very simple operation. The OB/GYN was a Mexican and in Mexico it is very common for OB/GYNs to do vasectomies. The OB/GYN charged $600 - my insurance paid it all. The hospital wanted $1,800.

Doctor's hospitals are very bad for controlling health care costs because they limit competition. Doctors are not free to refer their patients to where the best or cheapest health care is available. They must, by contract, send all their patients to the doctor's hospital.

Obama got this one right. BIG TIME! Good Job, Barry!

[Jeannieb43]

You guys are arguing about things from your own very provincial viewpoints. Things are different in different locations.

"Doctors hospitals" are proprietary institutions -- owned by the doctors who work there, and are profit-making ventures. The doctors who own them make money from the work done in those hospitals. Some of them are good, some corrupt. Depends on where they are and who owns them. I would prefer a community hospital, a non-profit organization, as a patient myself.

Vasectomies are routinely done in urologists' offices, as outpatient procedures. [i have two urologists in my family, and before my children were born I worked in the office of the leading urology group in Southern California.] If a urologist isn't available, then an Ob/Gyn specialist would be okay too, but it all depends on the doctor.