University of Louisville Looking for New Hospital Partner, or an Old Flame?

No one who has corresponded with me believes that the University has given up its quest to be acquired by Catholic Health Initiatives. The Chairman of the Hospital’s Board of Trustees pointedly refused to answer a direct question on the matter. One correspondent at Jewish Hospital believes the institution is treading water until the University can jump in the pool. I have already commented on what I believe is the University’s strategy to present the governor with an offer he cannot refuse. Indeed, I am hearing secondhand that President Ramsey is telling supporters he will push this thing through. It certainly seems as though that is true.  (If you have first-hand knowledge, I would love to hear from you.)

Today, reporters Chris Kenning and Patrick Howington tell us about yesterday’s closed session of the Trustees of the University of Louisville giving its medical center permission to issue a request for proposals to seek a new partner. (I thought closed sessions weren’t allowed for this sort of thing? So much for transparency.) Recall that failure to follow state procurement rules was one of many criticisms of the Attorney General’s Office supporting the rejection of the first merger effort. The University appears to be doing some backfill work. I have not yet seen this RFP, but University officials are quoted as saying they are seeking a “health care entity with a statewide network and capital resources to help maintain the hospital teaching and indigent care missions.” It seems to me this will be very short list. I will not be surprised that the RFP is written so narrowly that there is only one entity on earth that will fit the bill. (That is what some unethical employers do when they want to hire a particular person but yet be seen as following the procedures of affirmative action employment.) No doubt I will be proven wrong and will apologize for expressing an erroneous opinion. In fact, it just occurred to me that I am dead wrong. The University of Kentucky with its statewide presence and deep well of state support could easily be an eligible entity. The more I think of it, the better the idea seems! Brilliant!!  (Of course there are also the Baptist and Norton systems.)

KentuckyOne Health told its physicians today that it has been aware (was anyone else?) of the process and believes that a “close working relationship with the University of Louisville School of Medicine and University Medical Center is important to our vision as an organization.” In fact they seem downright eager to respond to an RFP.

Shame on the University of Louisville for dragging its community through this monkey business all over again. Arrogance is a descriptor that comes to mind. Of course, if you know you will ultimately get your way, how you appear is of less consequence. There are many in our community who want to help the University and to protect our public hospital. The University is making it difficult for us to do so.

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
Feb 17, 2012

 

A printable PDF version of this post is available here.

University of Louisville’s Review of Its Hospital Operations.

And Who Will Take Care of the Poor?

One doesn’t ask of one who suffers: What is your country and what is your religion? One merely says, you suffer, That is enough for me. You belong to me and I shall help you.        Attributed to Louis Pasteur.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky once required hospitals and doctor’s offices to post the prices of their top 20 services. This was fair– hospitals were asking their patients how they expected to pay. The policy concept of disclosure was and is reasonable, but the results were embarrassing, unused, and perhaps not even helpful. Under pressure, the Commonwealth repealed the law after two years.

I suggest we would all feel better (and probably even be better) if we would post the above thesis instead. Why don’t we? Most or all of the doctors with whom I went to medical school would have echoed Pasteur at the time. I suspect most hospital administrators and their corporate boards also wish they could post Pasteur’s profession on their front doors. After all, the earliest hospitals were established almost entirely to serve the poor. The non-profit status of today’s hospitals stems from those charitable roots. The sad fact is that in our system, no single physician or hospital could stay in business if they actually tried to serve all who showed up on their doorstep. It takes a community effort. In Louisville, talk of indigent care usually focusses on University Hospital. Why is that, and should it?

Fitness of University Hospital to serve the poor.

Earlier this month, and under the sword of an examination by the State Auditor’s Office, the University of Louisville announced that it would review its hospital operations to address questions of the strengths and vulnerabilities that were raised during the debate over their proposed merger/acquisition by Catholic Health Initiatives. They will retain an outside consultant of their choosing and have named a 9 person review committee. We are told that the review will consider how University Hospital compares to other academic hospitals financially and in the amount of “indigent care” provided. The University obviously still has a partnership on its mind, but declined to answer a direct question of whether it had resumed discussions with the new KentuckyOne Health entity. [Of course it has!]

I credit the University folks for opening the planned meetings to the public, but it looks to me that they want to control what is discussed just as tightly as they did when they rolled out their campaign for last Fall’s failed merger. Faced with a truly independent outside audit, and still embroiled in the courts over their withholding of court-ordered documents, some damage control might be judged imperative. It is axiomatic in matters such as these, that if you can select the issues and define the vocabulary of the debate, you have won before you even start. The University wants this discussion to be about how many medically indigent patients they serve, and to convince us that all that is needed is more money from the state or elsewhere. One strategy that I see evolving, seeks to give the Governor and Attorney General’s offices the political cover needed to reverse their previous rejection of the CHI acquisition.  The University leadership has (1.) already demanded more money than they know the Commonwealth can provide, (2.) will claim that only more money will solve the problem, and then (3.) present once again a deal they still hope to make with Jewish Hospital and CHI, (now KentuckyHealth One).  This would be an incomplete victory. Continue reading “University of Louisville’s Review of Its Hospital Operations.”

Horse Liniment for Your Arthritis and Healthcare Reform.

While looking in today’s paper for inspiration for something to write about, I saw an advertisement claiming that the “Arthritis Pain Mystery” had been solved, and that the secret was “Horse Liniment.” Naturally there was something you can buy. The only corporate identification or images in the ad were the prominent trademarks of both Walgreens and RiteAid. I know something about arthritis, and I initially assumed that these two giant drugstore competitors had joined forces to bring this breakthrough to the public. At first it looked to me like the drugstores had placed the ad themselves.

Actually, the truth is that this advertisement caught my eye because is was one of a long series by many companies that make what is in my professional opinion overly sensational, misleading, and unsupported claims to be effective treatments for arthritis and other musculoskeletal ailments. I have always had to look hard and usually unsuccessfully for the grain of truth in these kinds of ads that might make them legal. No doubt the promoters of ARTH ARREST, “considered a medical miracle by some” had their ad reviewed by lawyers. It may well have passed such muster, but in my professional opinion, it fails the sniff test of ethical medical promotion. Any ad with the word “miracle” or which relys on anecdotal testimonials should wave a red flag. Even the big pharmaceutical companies do not make such claims, and they are not my ethical champions.  When I read closer, I saw that the drugs were simply available at Walgreens and RiteAid. Both companies were apparently merely lending their good names to the promotion. Continue reading “Horse Liniment for Your Arthritis and Healthcare Reform.”

Kentucky Medicaid is a Mess.

Slow-Payments or No-Payments for medical care.

A week ago I was pretty tough on a possibly hypothetical physician who was said at a Frankfort hearing to have abandoned two child patients because one of the three new Kentucky Medicaid Managed care vendors had not paid him for three months. What is not hypothetical is that the Medicaid system is now in shambles. There are now four independent Medicaid managed care systems in Kentucky plus original Medicaid itself to deal with. Each of these has its own bureaucracy and unique systems. Thats a lot of different hoops for physicians and other healthcare providers to jump through. I have no doubt all are pulling their hair out. By all accounts, all three new vendors are in the pay-slow, pay-low mode. Cynics will point out that this is an easy way for an insurer to make a profit. After all, even Kentucky government uses the gimmick of paying healthcare providers late as a way to balance the books and make it look like they have actually been doing their jobs.

It is easy to assume that the three new managed care companies are to blame. That does not easily explain why all three seem to have failed at the same time, or why they appear successful in other states in which they work. When I worked in Kentucky Medicaid in the 1990s during my first-ever sabbatical and later as a faculty fellow, it was clear to me that there were major inadequacies in the state’s Medicaid computer systems and their ability to transfer and analyze information. I hope things have improved since then. Remember that all information about eligible beneficiaries, hospitals, and other providers has to be transferred to the managed care companies and continually updated so they know who to pay and for what. The three vendors have been silent publicly, but I will bet a martini in your favorite Louisville bar that internally they are struggling to interface with the state’s system. When you consider that each hospital and doctor’s office may also have their own computer system, it is no surprise that Kentucky Medicaid is staggering under its own weight and complexity. I hope we can pull out of this death spiral of cost and confusion. I still expect the state and providers to hold patients harmless, but that cannot continue infinitely. What a mess! Continue reading “Kentucky Medicaid is a Mess.”