HEALTH DISPARITIES BLOG

December 12, 2006

Milwaukee Hospital Stops Accepting the Poor

From the Journal Sentinel Online:

For most procedures and tests, the flagship hospital of Aurora Health Care now refers people in the Medicaid and BadgerCare programs to two other hospitals within its system: Aurora Sinai Medical Center and West Allis Memorial Hospital.

What makes this disturbing is the hospital's tax exempt status:

Aurora Health Care is a tax-exempt health care system that by law must be run for the public benefit.

The hospital maintains that the poor are receiving care but it makes no mention of transportation issues.

"The patients who need the care are getting it," said Michael Brophy, a spokesman for Aurora St. Luke's. "And that should be the bottom line."

In fact, other hospitals are now receiving new patients.

Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Francis, less than one mile away from Aurora St. Luke's, already has seen an increase in the number of Medicaid patients its treats.

And the effect of all this?

The new policy effectively means that someone who lives near Aurora St. Luke's can go to the hospital for an MRI if the person is in a commercial health plan, but not if he or she is in a Medicaid health plan.

Those people instead will be sent to Aurora Sinai or West Allis Memorial, each about four miles away.

"It is part of segregating people into the haves and have-nots in health care," said Bobby Peterson, a lawyer and executive director of ABC for Health, a statewide public interest law firm in Madison.

He recognizes that health plans often put limitations on people's choices. But he characterizes Aurora St. Luke's move as a slippery slope.

"It's saying, 'If you are Medicaid, no thank you. If you are commercial, the door's open,'" Peterson said. "It's troubling news."