Need For New Revenue

In a recent article Detroit Free Press Medical Writer Patricia Anstett cited many statistics related healthcare and the impact of the national economic condition. This provides more fuel to the need for a retail initiative and its potential revenues.



Economy has Michigan hospitals hurting, association warns
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT • FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER • February 6


The worst economy in decades is crippling Michigan hospitals, causing large financial losses, layoffs and cuts in programs and construction, the state's hospital association warned in a report Thursday.
"The health care safety net is in dire straits unless there's a new infusion of money," said Lori Latham, spokeswoman for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.
The report found that:
• Michigan hospitals on average posted a negative 2.9% margin, or losses, in the third quarter of 2008, down from a positive 2.2% margin, or earnings, the same period in 2007.
• Losses from providing free care, picking up unreimbursed costs for people with government programs and bad debt reached a record $2 billion last year.
Hospitals reported an 8% increase in uncompensated care in the third quarter of last year, compared with the same period the year before.
• Fifteen of the state's 144 nonprofit hospitals were forced to lay off at least 1,320 workers last year, and more layoffs are expected.
The report does not list the number of employees the 144 hospitals have.
• Between 1999 and 2007, the number of Michigan residents covered by private insurance plummeted by 727,000 people.
• More people rely on costly emergency department care. In 2007, the most recent data available, Michigan hospitals recorded 4.5 million emergency visits, a 3% increase from 2006.
• Michigan's Medicaid program, which reimburses hospitals for care at the lowest rates for any health insurer, hit a record 1.6 million recipients in 2008 and is projected to rise another 3% this year.
The association went to the unusual step of releasing information about hospital losses in last year's third quarter to alert the Legislature that hospitals need help, Latham said.
One possible source could be new federal Medicaid money the state expects to get in President Barack Obama's economic-stimulus legislation. It awaits U.S. Senate action.
To see the report, go to http://www.mha.org/ and click on the newsroom menu's Reports and Publications folder. Contact PATRICIA ANSTETT at panstett@freepress.com.