Posted on 08/10/2009 8:30:06 PM PDT by new cruelty
The bitter war over Northeastern Hospital isn't over yet.
Most of the battles in this months-long conflict have been won by Temple University Health System officials, who announced in March their decision to close the Port Richmond hospital because of mounting financial losses.
Hundreds of layoffs followed when the hospital ceased inpatient services on June 30.
Now, state Rep. John Taylor and other leaders who had fought to save the ill-fated hospital have fired a salvo that could deprive Temple University of $175 million in state and federal funds.
"We told them we'd do this. Apparently they didn't understand," Taylor said. "Now, they have a mess on their hands."
A bill that would provide Temple with millions of dollars through a nondeferred appropriation was pulled from the state House of Representatives yesterday, Taylor said.
Similar bills for other schools, such as Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh, were moved to a third and final stage of consideration.
Taylor said state House leaders will vote on the final bills once the state budget is settled.
By that time, Temple "could be dead in the water," he added.
Ken Lawrence Jr., Temple's senior vice president for government, community and public affairs, said the loss in state and federal funds would lead to "a tuition increase of 45 percent, or roughly $5,000" for Temple's undergraduate students.
"We respect Representative Taylor and stand ready to discuss his concerns," Lawrence added. "However, our students should not be punished with a potentially devastating tuition increase."
Temple's current undergraduate tuition rate is $11,273 to $13,511.
Taylor vowed to cut off funding to Temple University and Temple Health System days after health-system officials announced that Northeastern would close.
"They took it pretty lightly," he said.
"They treated the community like some arrogant, thoughtless private entity, so we're treating them like an arrogant, thoughtless, private entity."
He and other leaders, including state Rep. Dennis O'Brien, and state Sens. Mike Stack and Larry Farnese, publicly lobbied to save the hospital, which served Port Richmond, Fishtown, Kensington and Bridesburg.
Temple Health officials said Northeastern had lost $6.6 million in fiscal year 2008, and was due to lose another $15 million this year.
The pols said Edmond Notebaert, the health system's president and chief executive, had stabbed them in the back by not seeking their input.
In April, Taylor convinced Temple Health officials to hold off dismantling portions of the hospital for 30 days in the hopes that a miracle cure could be found. It never materialized.
The hospital closed as scheduled but began offering an array of outpatient services on July 1.
Taylor said health-system officials ignored his offers to help them find additional tenants to make consistent use of the hospital building.
"I'm a Temple supporter. It kills me to do this, but they ignored me, Senator Farnese, Senator Stack and Representative O'Brien from the start. We have to do it," he added.
Ought to be interesting to see how this plays out.
Somehow I think FREE healthcare for illegal aliens might be involved. This is how most hospitals go bankrupt.
Time for a government takeover of the private university system....
“They treated the community like some arrogant, thoughtless private entity”
Sounds to me that’s how the community was treating them. How do you go from 6 to a 15 milldion dollar loss when you’re open 24/7? Seems to me the community was abusing them.
So they have to take a $15 million loss to get recompensed $175 million from the government. They are complaining about this? Does sound a bit arrogant on the part of Temple. Maybe there’s more to it.
The Medical Center is separate from the university. A loss from one should not be attributed to the other.
The large, university hospitals in Philadelphia, by taking over the smaller, money-losing hospitals in the city, have kept many of the city hospitals open for years. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, without lots of private payer patients in the mix, just doesn't pay the bills. Temple gets more than their share of non-paying patients, particularly in the ER.
While a loss to the neighborhood, closing one hospital should not be a major roadblock to adequate healthcare for the residents. They may have to travel a bit farther, but the city does have ample public transportation. It is not like losing a community hospital where local residents have to travel 50 miles to the next nearest facility.
The government $ go to the parent institution. The taxpayers should expect some material benefit IMO. Any institution that accepts public funds puts themselves in the position of dealing with public concerns.
Hospitals also suffer if they have too few insured patients to offset the government insured (medicare and medicade)patients. Illegals and uninsured Americans hurt too.
The government does not pay what it costs to care for patients.
Temple should not be blackmailed into keeping a money-losing hospital open and staffed in order to provide that benefit.
If you think it’s blackmail that’s your opinion. I don’t think anyone put a gun to their heads to take tax dollars in the first place though.
So, they will force more hospitals to close! That’ll learn them.
So shutting down more hospitals will make Temple learn. Or put them out of business. Temple should never have made a deal in the first place, should never have decided to cover the uninsured and the illegals. They’re problem was they trusted government, like GM
It appears upon further reading that most of their funding is public funding. Tax dollars.
My guess would be the main source of financial problems comes from treating legal American minorities who don’t pay.
IIs certainly do not help those problems.
I’m not agreeing with the situation. I’m just having a hard time sympathizing with Temple’s stance. Maybe I’m missing something. Tax revenues are way down all over. The reps have their jobs to do. I don’t see eating $15 mil in exchange for $175 mil a bad deal with the way the general economy is right now. I don’t have anything against Temple. The economy just sucks right now.
"They're bleeding money, and eventually the whole thing kind of fell under its own weight."
John Buckley, the hospital's chief executive, said that Northeastern lost $6.6 million in fiscal year 2008, and was projected to lose $15 million this year.
But the hospital was plagued with more than just red ink. Buckley, in an interview last month with the Daily News, described a plethora of systemic problems that seemed to threaten the foundation of Northeastern - and the rest of the Temple University Health System, which includes three other hospitals.
More than 53 percent of Northeastern's patients use Medicaid, which compensates the hospital for 75 percent of what it costs to treat patients, Buckley noted.
He said that a "disproportionately high number" of the 48,000 people who visit Northeastern's emergency department are there for primary care.
they didn't "cover" the uninsured.. they are mandated by LAW to cover the uninsured. If you show up at their door and on their property and you present with a medical "problem" you are protected by EMTALA and will be given a full medical screening exam. If they are able to treat an emergent condition that they find they are mandated by LAW to treat that illness. They also can not transfer the case to another facility for financial reasons and are not allowed by law to ask any questions concerning insurance status prior to initiating the medical screening exam.
This is the great "myth" about "lack of medical care".. it's all bullsh#t.
The government creates problems in order to take over the game. It is trying to systematically destroy medicine cause it knows that if you are unable to care for yourself or loved ones during illness then you feel threatened. They will "cover" you , right up to the point where the chosen ones will have to sacrifice.
The more equal animals will get the transplants, chemotherapy, laser surgeries, cryotreatments, and all the other innovative tools of medicine.
The little people will be given the choice of euthanasia drugs or being labeled "selfish and useless eaters" by the intelligent medical bureaucrats.
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