Category Archives: Hospital Industry

It’s Not Just Hospitals That Are Quick To Sue Patients Who Can’t Pay

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, ACA, Debt Collection, Debt Collection Agency, Health Insurance Coverage Adequacy, Health Policy, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Out of Pocket Expenses, Private Equity, Rev Cycle Management, Surprise Bills, Underinsured, Uninsured • Leave a comment

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/02/19/798894062/its-not-just-hospitals-that-are-quick-to-sue-patients-who-cant-pay?utm_source=The+Fiscal+Times&utm_campaign=59b997dc59-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_02_19_10_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_714147a9cf-59b997dc59-390702969

Social worker Sonya Johnson received a civil warrant to appear in court when the company that runs Nashville General Hospital’s emergency room threatened to sue her over a $2,700 ER bill — long after she’d already negotiated a reduced payment schedule for the rest of her hospital stay.

Nashville General Hospital is a safety net facility funded by the city. For a patient without insurance, this is supposed to be the best place to go in a city with many hospitals. But for those who are uninsured, it may have been the worst choice in 2019.

Its emergency room was taking more patients to court for unpaid medical bills than any other hospital or practice in town. A WPLN investigation finds the physician-staffing firm that runs the ER sued 700 patients in Davidson County during 2019.

They include patients such as Sonya Johnson, a 52-year-old social worker and single mother.

By juggling her care between a nonprofit clinic and Nashville General, Johnson had figured out how to manage her health problems, even though she was, until recently, uninsured. In 2018, she went in to see her doctor, who charges patients on a sliding scale. Her tongue was swollen and she was feeling weak. The diagnosis? She was severely anemic.

“He called me back that Halloween day and said, ‘I need you to get to the emergency [room], stat — and they’re waiting on you when you get there,’ ” she recalls.

Nashville General kept her overnight and gave her a blood transfusion. They wanted to keep her a second night — but she was worried about the mounting cost, so asked to be sent home.

Staying overnight even the one night meant she was admitted to the hospital itself, and the bill for that part of her care wasn’t so bad, Johnson says. The institution’s financial counselors offered a 75% discount, because of her strained finances and because her job didn’t offer health insurance at the time.

But emergency rooms are often run by an entirely separate entity. In Nashville General’s case, the proprietor was a company called Southeastern Emergency Physicians. And that’s the name on a bill that showed up in Johnson’s mailbox months later for $2,700.

“How in the world can I pay this company, when I couldn’t even pay for health care [insurance]?” Johnson asks.

Johnson didn’t recognize the name of the physician practice. A Google search doesn’t help much. There’s no particular website, though a list of Web pages that do turn up in such a search suggest the company staffs a number of emergency departments in the region.

Johnson says she tried calling the number listed on her bill to see if she could get the same charity-care discount the hospital gave her, but she could only leave messages.

And then came a knock at her apartment door over the summer. It was a Davidson County sheriff’s deputy with a summons requiring Johnson to appear in court.

“It’s very scary,” she says. “I mean, [I’m] thinking, what have I done? And for a medical bill?”

Nashville General Hospital was no longer suing patients

Being sued over medical debt can be a big deal because it means the business can get a court-ordered judgment to garnish the patient’s wages, taking money directly from their paycheck. The strategy is meant to make sure patients don’t blow off their medical debts. But this is not good for the health of people who are uninsured, says Bruce Naremore, the chief financial officer at Nashville General.

“When patients owe money, and they feel like they’re being dunned all the time, they don’t come back to the hospital to get what they might need,” he says.

Under Naremore’s direction in the past few years, Nashville General had stopped suing patients for hospital fees. He says it was rarely worth the court costs.

But Southeastern Emergency Physicians — which, since 2016, has been contracted by the hospital to run and staff its emergency department — went the other way, filing more lawsuits against patients than ever in 2019.

Naremore says the decision on whether to sue over emergency care falls to the company that staffs the ER, not Nashville General Hospital.

“It’s a private entity that runs the emergency room, and it’s the cost of doing business,” he says. “If I restrict them from collecting dollars, then my cost is going to very likely go up, or I’m going to have to find another provider to do it.”

This is a common refrain, says Robert Goff. He’s a retired hospital executive and board member of RIP Medical Debt. The nonprofit helps patients who are trapped under a mountain of medical bills, which are the No. 1 cause of personal bankruptcy.

“So the hospital sits there and says, ‘Not my problem.’ That’s irresponsible in every sense of the word,” Goff says.

The practice of suing patients isn’t new for Southeastern Emergency Physicians or its parent company, Knoxville-based TeamHealth. But such lawsuits have picked up in recent years, even as the company has stopped its practice of balance billing patients.

TeamHealth is one of the two dominant ER staffing firms in the nation, running nearly 1 in 10 emergency departments in the United States. And its strategy of taking patients to court ramped up after it was purchased by the private equity giant Blackstone, according to an investigation by the journalism project MLK50 in Memphis.

Under pressure from journalists, TeamHealth ultimately pledged to stop suing patients and to offer generous discounts to uninsured patients.

Officials from TeamHealth declined WPLN’s request for an interview to answer questions about how widespread its practice of suing patients for ER doctors’ services and fees has been.

“We will work with patients on a case by case basis to reach a resolution,” TeamHealth said in an email.

According to court records obtained by WPLN, the firm filed about 700 lawsuits against patients in Nashville in 2019. That’s up from 120 in 2018 and just seven in 2017. Its only contract in the city is with Nashville General’s ER, and the patients reached by WPLN say they were uninsured when they were sued.

What’s surprising to Mandy Pellegrin, who has been researching medical billing in Tennessee at the nonpartisan Sycamore Institute, is that it was all happening at Nashville General — where treating uninsured patients is part of the hospital’s mission.

“It is curious that a company that works for a hospital like that might resort to those sorts of actions,” Pellegrin says.

TeamHealth halts suits, pledges to drop cases

As for Sonya Johnson — she eventually went to court and worked out a payment plan of $70 a month over three years.

And now TeamHealth tells WPLN that its intent is to drop pending cases.

“We will not file additional cases naming patients as defendants and will not seek further judgments,” a TeamHealth spokesperson says in an emailed statement. “Our intent is not to have these pending cases proceed. We’re working as expeditiously as possible on resolving individual outstanding cases.”

Johnson says she’s been told that the lawsuit Southeastern Emergency Physicians filed against her will be dropped — but that she still owes the $2,700 bill.

 

 

 

A slightly less bad year for CHS

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After the stock market closed yesterday, Community Health Systems disclosed it lost $675 million in 2019, still has $13.4 billion of long-term debt and will sell even more hospitals than it already has, Axios’ Bob Herman reports.

The intrigue: The company’s stock was up 12% in after-hours trading.

  • That’s because CHS expects 2020 to be better — but still lose upwards of $150 million.

The bottom line: CHS owns a lot of hospitals in rural and small communities. Putting aside CHS’ specific business flops, it’s become tougher to operate hospitals in areas where the population is stagnating or declining because hospitals still rely on filling their clinics and beds.

 

 

 

Healthcare spending is higher over 5 years, mostly due to a rise in prices, says new report

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Health Insurance Coverage Adequacy, Health Insurance Industry, Health Policy, Health System, High Deductible Health Plans, High Drug Prices, High Premiums, High Prices, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Market Consolidation, Market Failure, Market Power, Out of Pocket Expenses • Leave a comment

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Between 2014 and 2018, per-person yearly spending, for those with employer-sponsored insurance, climbed 18.4%.

A new report confirms concerns about healthcare costs, as it shows per-person spending is increasing faster than per-capita gross domestic product.

Between 2014 and 2018, per-person yearly spending, for those with employer-sponsored insurance, climbed  from $4,987 to $5,892, an 18.4% increase, according to the 2018 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report released Thursday.  The average annual rate of 4.3% outpaced growth in per-capita GDP, which increased at an average 3.4% over the same period.

There’s an exception from 2017 to 2018, when per-capita GDP grew slightly faster than healthcare spending per person.

The $5,892 total includes amounts paid for medical and pharmacy claims but does not subtract manufacturer rebates for prescription drugs.

Healthcare spending grew 4.4% in 2018, slightly above growth in 2017 of 4.2%, and the third consecutive year of growth above 4%.

After adjusting for inflation, spending rose by $610 per person between
2014 and 2018.

The cost estimates are consistent with National Health Expenditure data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the report said.

WHAT’S THE IMPACT

Higher prices for medical services were responsible for about three-quarters, 74%, of the spending increase above inflation. These increases were across all categories of outpatient and professional services.

Average prices grew 2.6% in 2018. While that is the lowest rate of growth over the period, consistent year-over-year increases mean that prices were 15% higher in 2018 than 2014.

The increase for outpatient visits and procedures was $87 in 2018, the largest annual increase between 2014 and 2018.

Average out-of-pocket price for ER visits increased more sharply than other subcategories of outpatient visits, though all saw an increase in the average amount for which patients were responsible

Professional service spending per person rose $86 in 2018, reflecting an acceleration in spending growth consistent with previous years’ trends, according to the report.

Inpatient services and prescription drugs also saw an increase in spending per person.

Inpatient admissions increased $24 in 2018, a smaller annual increase than in 2016 or 2017, but above the rise in 2015.

Per-person spending on prescription drugs rose $50, similar to increases in 2016 and 2017, but smaller than the rise in 2015. The total does not reflect manufacturer rebates.

On average, Americans with employer-sponsored insurance spent
$155 out-of-pocket on prescription drugs in 2018.

Prices rose, as did utilization, which grew 1.8% from 2017 to 2018, the fastest pace during the five-year period. And because of the higher price levels, the effect of the increase in utilization in 2018 on total spending was higher than it would have been in 2014.

Higher utilization may be the result of a population that got slightly older between 2014 and 2018. The population also became slightly more female.

People with job-based insurance saw their out-of-pocket costs rise by an average of 14.5%, or $114, between 2014 and 2018.

THE LARGER TREND

As most Americans have job-based health insurance, this data is critical for understanding overall health costs in the United States, the report said.

An estimated 49% of the U.S. population, about 160 million people, had employer-based health insurance in 2018, based on Census data.

The report combined data from large insurers, using 4,000 distinct
age/gender/geography combinations. It contains previously unreported information drawn from 2.5 billion insurance claims.

Claims data is the most comprehensive source of real-world evidence available to researchers as databases collect information on millions of doctors’ visits, healthcare procedures, prescriptions, and payments by insurers and patients, giving researchers large sample sizes, the report said.

 

Budget Cuts Target Medicaid, Medicare

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, ACA, American Hospital Association (AHA), Health Policy, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Medicaid, Medicaid Work Requirements, Medicare • Leave a comment

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Blueprint includes cuts for care in hospital outpatient departments, teaching hospitals and post-acute care providers, AHA says.

President Trump’s proposed $4.8 trillion budget slashes billions of dollars from Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs in an attempt to shrink the federal deficit.

Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act see about $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade, according to The Hill. The budget eliminates the enhanced federal match for Medicaid expansion enrollees. An additional $150 billion is expected to be shaved off of Medicaid from the implementation of work requirements, which is expected to result in people losing their healthcare coverage.

The “President’s health reform vision” to ax the Affordable Care Act takes $844 billion over 10 years from the ACA, the report said.

The decrease in federal spending on Medicare would total about $750 billion over 10 years, but that includes shifting two programs out of the budget. After accounting for those changes, the reduction is just over $500 billion, according to CNN. Much of that cut comes from reducing payments to providers.

The budget needs Congressional approval and is not expected to get past a Democratic-controlled House without changes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted: “The budget is a statement of values. Once again, the #TrumpBudget makes it painfully clear how little the President values the good health, financial security and well-being of America’s hard-working families.”

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-MA, said, “When I saw the President’s proposed budget today, I felt an immense sense of relief – relief that there is absolutely no chance of his ruthless cuts to critical programs ever becoming law. Slashing billions from Medicare and Medicaid will only make it harder for Americans to access the healthcare they need.

Cutting nutrition assistance and Social Security benefits for the disabled won’t enable people to get back on their feet financially.”

Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn said, “Under the Constitution, it is Congress’ job to set spending priorities and pass appropriations bills, and as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, my priorities will continue to be making sure our national defense, national laboratories, the National Institutes of Health and national parks have the resources they need. I am encouraged to see the president is calling to end surprise medical billing.”

The budget adds money to the National Institutes of Health. The NIH will invest $50 million for new research on chronic diseases, using AI and related approaches, according to the White House briefing. It adds $7 billion over 10 years to fight opioid abuse and for mental health in the Medicaid program.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid mean uncompensated care to providers, or a reduction in the government payments.

The American Hospital Association said, “The budget request, which is not binding, proposes hundreds of billions of dollars in reductions to Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years.”

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said, “Every year, we adapt to a constantly changing environment, but every year, the Administration aims to gut our nation’s healthcare infrastructure. The proposals in this budget would result in hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts that sacrifice the health of seniors, the uninsured and low-income individuals. This includes the one in five Americans who depend on Medicaid, of which 43% of enrollees are children.

“In addition to the hundreds of billions in proposed reductions to Medicare, the blueprint includes cuts we strongly oppose for care in hospital outpatient departments, teaching hospitals and post-acute care providers.

These cuts fail to recognize the crucial role hospitals serve for their communities, such as providing 24/7 emergency services. Post-acute cuts threaten care for patients with the most medically complex conditions.”

 

 

Learning to live on Medicare margins

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, ACA, Cost Management, Cost Reduction, Health Policy, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Medicare, Public Option • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/0ee433170414/the-weekly-gist-february-14-2020?e=d1e747d2d8

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“If Democrats take back the Senate and win the White House, there’s a good chance they’ll implement some version of a public option or Medicare buy-in, and that would be devastating for the fragile economics of our health system.” That was the message delivered by the CEO of a system we were visiting recently, in her report to the board of directors.

That kind of alarmist message might seem career-limiting, but given the way the politics of healthcare are playing out at both the national and state levels (see Colorado and Washington State), it’s past time for executives to get beyond the rhetoric and begin to prepare for the real financial consequences of public option proposals.

That’s what this CEO had done—what followed the dire warning was a detailed analysis (which we helped assemble) of what would happen in various scenarios—what if one percent of our revenue shifted from commercial rates (around 250 percent of Medicare) to possible public option rates (somewhere between 140 and 180 percent of Medicare)? That’s a knowable number, and you can begin to make assumptions about how much business would shift under different scenarios, and how quickly.

The reality for health systems is that most of the margin comes from the 55-to-65-year-old population—who use more healthcare services but whose care is reimbursed at commercial rates. That cohort cross-subsidizes much of the rest of a typical hospital’s business.

The presentation to the board laid those economic realities out in concise detail—and provided a bracing wake-up call that the system needs to be prepared to live on a different level of margin than they enjoyed in the past.

That means radical cost controls, sharp reductions in “system bloat”, and a laser-like focus on shifting care to lower-cost settings. For years, hospital leaders have tossed around the notion that “we have to learn to live on Medicare margins”.

Given the rising popularity of public option policies (67 percent of Americans support the idea according to a recent poll, as do 42 percent of Republicans), that lesson may need to be learned sooner rather than later.

 

 

 

Steward moves to sell struggling Pennsylvania hospital

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-transactions-and-valuation/steward-moves-to-sell-struggling-pennsylvania-hospital.html?utm_medium=email

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Dallas-based Steward Health Care has signed a letter of intent to sell Easton (Pa.) Hospital to a local healthcare system, a source familiar with the agreement told The Morning Call.

The document reviewed by the publication suggest that St. Luke’s University Health Network is the likely buyer. Both Steward and St. Luke’s declined to comment.

Last month, Bethlehem, Pa.-based St. Luke’s University Health Network and Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network, submitted bids to buy Easton Hospital.

The takeover bids came after Steward said it would cut services to improve the system’s finances.

Easton Hospital has struggled to compete with both St. Luke’s and Lehigh Valley Health for the last five years, according to the report.

On Feb. 12, Steward sent a warning letter to the Lehigh Valley Health to stop recruiting physicians from Easton Hospital, saying they are contractually banned from working at a competing system. This suggests that St. Luke’s bid may have been approved over Lehigh Valley Health, according to the report. 

Read the full report here. 

 

 

The role of the modern Hospital & Health System CFO: 3 things to know

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/the-role-of-the-modern-cfo-3-things-to-know.html?utm_medium=email

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The role of hospital and health system CFO has changed in recent years. CFOs are now change agents within their organizations and are deeply embedded in the day-to-day operations of the business.

Speaking on a panel called “The Evolving Role of the CFO” at the Becker’s Hospital Review 8th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable in November, a panel of health system CFOs and finance leaders from across the country discussed how the finance chief role has changed and expanded.

The five panelists were:

  • Jeanette Wojtalewicz, senior vice president of Omaha, Neb.-based CHI Health
  • Nicholas Mendyka, vice president of system finance operations at Minneapolis-based Allina Health
  • Doug Welday, CFO of Evanston, Ill.-based NorthShore University HealthSystem
  • Kris Zimmer, CFO of St. Louis-based SSM Health
  • Mike Browning, CFO of Columbus-based OhioHealth

Here are three takeaways from the discussion:

1. CFOs are strategic leaders. The panelists noted that younger CFOs — those in their early 30s — come to the role with a fresh viewpoint. They are strategic and drive performance across the organization. Though CFOs who have been in the role for a decade or two may have a more traditional viewpoint, they’re adapting to the role of the modern CFO and embracing their more strategic position.

2. CFOs need different skills than in the past. The CFO role has expanded beyond traditional finance and accounting, and the skills CFOs need have changed too. When recruiting new members to their teams, the CFOs on the panel said they look for candidates with natural curiosity, data visualization skills and natural leadership abilities.

3. Clinician-finance partnerships are important. New payment models link quality of care to reimbursement, making it vital for CFOs and their teams to develop an understanding of the clinical side of the business. This has caused some health system CFOs to change their approach to training. The panelists said they try to help their teams develop an understanding of each department and learn how clinical and finance are connected.

 

Ochsner to pay tuition for future physicians, nurses who pledge to 5 years with system

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New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System created a $10 million tuition fund to grow its own workforce amid current labor market challenges, according to The Advocate, a Louisiana news outlet.

The system will begin by paying tuition for a cohort of 30 primary care physicians and psychiatrists. The physicians must commit to working in Louisiana with the health system for at least five years to receive the funding.

Ochsner has plans to offer similar scholarship opportunities for employees who want to become licensed practical nurses or registered nurses. It plans to ultimately cover tuition for about 1,000 employees, according to the report.

Read the full story here.

 

 

Trinity Health to end inpatient services at Philadelphia hospital

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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/patient-flow/trinity-health-to-end-inpatient-services-at-philadelphia-hospital.html?utm_medium=email

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Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health is shutting down inpatient services at Mercy Philadelphia Hospital in Philadelphia.

“After careful consideration, we have come to the financial realization that our Mercy Philadelphia campus simply cannot continue operating in an acute-care capacity over the long term,” a spokesperson for Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic said Feb. 12, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Officials did not provide a specific timeline for the closure.

“In the coming months, we will begin the slow, deliberate and informed process of transforming our campus away from an inpatient hospital, shifting toward a model that can better and more sustainably serve the West Philadelphia community in the future,” the spokesperson said, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “While we do not yet have all the answers, we promise to keep our patients, physicians and colleagues informed throughout every step of this process.”

Mercy Philadelphia Hospital is a 157-bed teaching hospital that was founded in 1918.

 

 

 

EHR giant Cerner loses major health system client AdventHealth to Epic

Posted on by • Posted in Electronic Health Record (EHR), Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry • Leave a comment

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Cerner's headquarters are in Kansas City, Missouri

Florida-based AdventHealth plans to replace its Cerner electronic health record (EHR) system with rival Epic’s.

One of the largest faith-based health systems in the country, AdventHealth operates 50 hospital campuses across a dozen states. The health system employs more than 80,000 people who serve more than 5 million patients annually and reports nearly $20 billion in annual revenue.

The health system first signed a deal with Cerner in 2002 when it was known as Adventist Health System.

AdventHealth will begin the transition in March and will eventually roll Epic’s EHR out to 1,200 care sites. The work is expected to be completed in about three years, the health system said.

In a press release issued Tuesday, AdventHealth said it plans to install a single, integrated Epic EHR and revenue cycle management system across all of its acute care, physician practice, ambulatory, urgent care, home health and hospice facilities.

Epic’s Community Connect program will also allow AdventHealth to extend its EHR system to affiliated providers as part of the integrated platform, according to AdventHealth.

“Our journey to become a consumer-focused clinical company requires a fully connected network throughout our entire enterprise,” Terry Shaw, president and CEO for AdventHealth, said in a statement. “Connecting our network with a robust, integrated health record platform will give our caregivers access to the clinical information they need at the point of care and ultimately advance our consumer promises through a more seamless experience for those we serve.”

In an emailed statement, Cerner confirmed the changeover. “AdventHealth has made the business decision to transition over the next few years management of its EHR and revenue cycle management system to another supplier. The shift is expected to take up to five years and Cerner is committed to working closely with AdventHealth to continue delivering superior health care technology solutions throughout the transition,” the company said.

Anonymous Reddit posters predicted the change months ago, saying that the health system was frustrated with integration issues with Cerner’s ambulatory solution and revenue cycle functionalities. HIStalk first reported the Reddit posts regarding Cerner and AdventHealth.

One Reddit user said AdventHealth staff felt the health system was on the “back burner” since Cerner signed massive projects with the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

It’s unclear what the loss of a big EHR client will mean for health IT company Cerner’s annual revenue or earnings.

The company continues efforts to turn its financial picture around and improve its operating performance.

Almost a year ago, activist investor Starboard Value stepped in, and Cerner reached a settlement with the hedge fund to add new directors to its board and buy back more of its shares. Cerner also agreed to take steps to improve operations and committed to hitting certain operating targets.

The new agreement between Cerner and Starboard Value, which has a 1.2% stake in the company, was seen as welcome news by many financial analysts as a plan to increase the company’s profitability.

Cerner’s full-year 2019 bookings were down 11% compared to 2018 bookings, from $6.72 billion to $5.99 billion. Company executives said during their full-year and fourth-quarter earnings call that the decline in bookings was primarily driven by the company being more selective in the types of contracts it pursues, which led to fewer large, long-term outsourcing contracts.