January 05, 2009
How Elite Hospitals Rake in the Bucks
The Boston Globe has a series of articles that highlight how well some hospitals are doing while others are struggling financially.
BNET.com has an excellent summary of the series.
Among the highlights:
Most Massachusetts hospitals are nonprofits, yet the higher payments allow the elite institutions to snare patients and physicians from their rivals. “They are using that not-for-profit status to make a profit and to build more capacity for things we don’t need,” says John Chessare, former acting CEO of Caritas Christi, the state’s second-largest hospital chain.
...community hospitals are suffering. Twenty have closed during the 1990s, and two dozen more are currently losing money. In addition to the competitive threat, hospitals are seeing their own physicians leave to set up outpatient facilities that offer highly lucrative services such as radiology.
The article is well worth the read.
EXTRA: This Friday Earl Pike from the Greater Cleveland AIDS Taskforce will be presenting at our Works in Progress Series. You can find more info here.
Posted by David Porter at 10:40 AM
Category: Health; Health Care; Healthcare; Heath Inequities; Hospitals; insurance