Shut-up.
Because the best way to entice the reader is by insulting them until they are COWED into submission and read to appease their betters!
Also, your voice annoys me- not the quality; but the fact that you have one, and aren't solely hear to provide me an audience- ready, able, and willing!
So: shut-up.
Full Disclosure: I have family members who work at Huntsville Hospital's only rival (in Huntsville), Crestwood Hospital.
Huntsville Hospital is fucking scary: A Case Study.
Like the fucking Janjawid, they have slowly expanded their way into local domination, and like a metastasizing cancer they will eventually spread to the rest of the world! This is a story of ethnic cleansing, if that were an accurate representation of highly suspect business practices, corporate greed, conflict of interest, and evil hospitals.
Huntsville Hospital is located near downtown Huntsville, and over the past 20 years has slowly bought up many of the units in the government housing projects located around it. For many years, the government opposed this; but recently Loretta Spencer- the idiot fuck who lost the Mayorial Election to Tommy Battle (the new potential Idiot Fuck)- put into effect a change to move all those horribly ugly and crime ridden projects away from the places they've been forever, and off to what it currently the furthest outskirts of town. Furthest, of course, if you live on the richest sides of town (southside, and near madison/research park/bridge street).
Why? 1, crime was bad in their parking garages. Cars were getting broken into a lot, despite security improvments it was "unacceptable". 2, for years there was a different hospital only two or three blocks over; which meant HH could expand into where the ghetto was or not at all- and one of THOSE was NOT an option. And even though HH finally bought up the site of the other hospital and expanded all over what was once a different facility, it still needed more room to grow and tumor out into- and it already owned significant portions of the projects nearby.
Okay, so this is predatory; but not really horrible. Agreed.
It's important to note that Huntsville Hospital is a CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION! They are not a business, they are here for the community, offering services; not running a business. This makes those predatory practices (understandable from a business) a bit more nefarious, don't you think? It also means they can ask for donations in the form of advertising, and provide their sponsors huge tax write-offs. This puts their competitors at serious disadvantage. Normally, this wouldn't matter to me; but HH has a bunch of shady/nefarious aspects and the free market works best when there is competition. One Hospital in 200 miles is a bit FAR from a competitive market place, and it seems to be exactly what HH wants.
Next Up: The curious case of the Little Hospital That Thought It Could, But Really Couldn't - Decatur General.
So, Decatur General couldn't afford a cardiac unit. For one, cardiac units are EXPENSIVE, for two they didn't have the docs for it. So DG makes a deal with HH to get some Cardiac specialists on loan. That way they save some money and provide residents of Decatur and other areas with cardiac care closer than Huntsville- 45 minutes or further away (down I-565). This deal REALLY pisses off DG's Obstetrics, and the OB's leave because DG can't afford to pay them enough to keep them because of how much the cardiac rental is costing. So, DG is up one Cardiac Unit, but can't deliver babies. So then, HH pulls it's docs back. DG now has no Obstetrics and no Cardiac Unit. DG was already financially strapped before the economic crisis; it's gone from being about to collapse to being held up by little more than a stubborn insistence to not admit it's already crumbled...
HH negotiated a sweet deal to supply another hospital (a hospital in an area HH has been restricted from going because it would endanger that SAME hospital and further reduce HH's competition in the local area). That hospital took the sweet deal, and lost out on a whole department. Then, reeling from the loss of a whole unit, HH pulls it's people at the first opportunity, effectively castrating DG.
Predatory? Yes, big time.
Add to it that Loretta Spencer and friends have sat, or do sit, on HH's board of directors/trustees. The local government (for the past 8 or more years, the same time coincidentally that HH has gone from one of three hospitals to owning one of the others and vastly dwarfing the remaining one) has been doing whatever it can to accomodate and appease the voracious appetite of the beast.
Seriously, Cthulhu-ian- I mean, the motherfucker spread out from it's original site to encompass about 4 square blocks worth of formerly independent medical institutions. Lovecraft would be pleased- especially with how they mistreated the poor black community that once lived in the projects.
All the doctors have big houses on southside (really the SE), while the projects are getting thrown out into the north. Zoning changed, road improvements came down the line, yadda yadda yadda. Either HH is one lucky fucking hospital, or it's needs are being met at the expense of all others.
Look at what happened to Athens-Limestone Hospital... Guess who owns it, now...
Decatur General is next.
If they can force Crestwood out- which would likely start by keeping Crestwood from getting the rights to put a small extension inside Madison City (also a tactic HH has successfull employed in the on-going Madison Hospital bruhaha)- Huntsville Hospital would be the only hospital in 100 miles.
It's a bit fucked.
Huntsville, despite it's size and prestige, is really just a small town- especially politically. And Huntsville Hospital is definitely part of the good ol' boy network, here.
Read More...
Showing posts with label Hospitals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hospitals. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Insurance
Health insurance is a big deal. The costs to cover an individual, or family, have been on the rise for a while, now. Malpractice insurance, for the health care workers, is also rising. Some advocate universal health care; others reflexively oppose anything they see as "socialist". It's a tangled mess.
There are ideas that medical insurance should be mandatory, like auto insurance. This is, by far, the stupidest possible outcome, in my opinion. Look at what happened when auto-insurance was mandated:
Politicians mandated a minimum amount- which changes state to state- based on what the average poorest people with cars could afford. They passed legislation, backed by the insurance companies, and rates went up. Rates went up because the insurance companies said demand went up. Demand went up because tickets were being given out. Tickets were being given out because politicians passed legislation, backed by the insurance companies. And the minimum amount of insurance cost those poorest people more than what was accounted for by the politicians.
Who cares? Poor people don't vote. They're stupid, and lazy, and poor. Fuck them!
The insurance companies- people who only care about profit- dictate to hospitals and doctors what procedures can be done, what testing can be done, and generally how to give those patients care. Read that again. The people whom only care about making money are the same people who decide how patients are treated. Conflict of interests? I'd say so; add to it that insurance companies continue to make money hand over fist. Though I'm not against companies making money, I do become concerned when it's at the expense of their customers.
Recently, a source involved with the administration of a local hospital told me that insurers would no longer cover ANY aspect of a hospital stay if the patient were injured. That means, if a patient gets out of bed, trips, falls, and breaks their leg- the insurance company won't cover the emergency appendectomy that was the cause for hospitalization. This is on top of their current Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to not cover any aspect of care required because of the injury. This means more costs to hospitals, and less funds to hire more nurses and other staff.
The American Journal of Nursing recently reported that insurance companies were going to stop coverage of hospital acquired infections in September of 2008. The number of infections not covered is due to increase in March of 2009. My source qualified the effect insurance companies already have over hospitals: "They get us coming and going."
Insurance companies dictate how many tests a doctor can run on a patient; and what kind of tests those can be. Instead of using the latest, most accurate, and- often- most expensive tests; the doctor is forced to use an older version that may be less reliable and is, definitely, cheaper. Of course, the doctor could always do a different version of the test, one not covered by the insurer, and pass the cost onto the patient- who probably already pays considerable amounts to be insured. However, this isn't a satisfactory solution, for many reasons.
One of the most common reasons for bankruptcy is debt from bills associated with health care. Adding more debt onto someone who, if the condition is serious- or debilitating- enough, is already missing work, is not going to help that person's recovery. Many studies have shown that stress can slow recovery in otherwise healthy patients. Additionally, doctors and patients often don't know how much a procedure, or test, will actually cost.
It does seem unfair that our government pays hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to fight a hugely unpopular war, while refusing to give basic preventative health care to its own citizens. Mandating coverage isn't going to fix the problem of rising health care costs. Mandating insurance, as it has in the past, only puts more power in the hands of Insurance Companies. Whatever the solution may be, it's not requiring health insurance. Read More...
There are ideas that medical insurance should be mandatory, like auto insurance. This is, by far, the stupidest possible outcome, in my opinion. Look at what happened when auto-insurance was mandated:
Politicians mandated a minimum amount- which changes state to state- based on what the average poorest people with cars could afford. They passed legislation, backed by the insurance companies, and rates went up. Rates went up because the insurance companies said demand went up. Demand went up because tickets were being given out. Tickets were being given out because politicians passed legislation, backed by the insurance companies. And the minimum amount of insurance cost those poorest people more than what was accounted for by the politicians.
Who cares? Poor people don't vote. They're stupid, and lazy, and poor. Fuck them!
The insurance companies- people who only care about profit- dictate to hospitals and doctors what procedures can be done, what testing can be done, and generally how to give those patients care. Read that again. The people whom only care about making money are the same people who decide how patients are treated. Conflict of interests? I'd say so; add to it that insurance companies continue to make money hand over fist. Though I'm not against companies making money, I do become concerned when it's at the expense of their customers.
Recently, a source involved with the administration of a local hospital told me that insurers would no longer cover ANY aspect of a hospital stay if the patient were injured. That means, if a patient gets out of bed, trips, falls, and breaks their leg- the insurance company won't cover the emergency appendectomy that was the cause for hospitalization. This is on top of their current Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to not cover any aspect of care required because of the injury. This means more costs to hospitals, and less funds to hire more nurses and other staff.
The American Journal of Nursing recently reported that insurance companies were going to stop coverage of hospital acquired infections in September of 2008. The number of infections not covered is due to increase in March of 2009. My source qualified the effect insurance companies already have over hospitals: "They get us coming and going."
Insurance companies dictate how many tests a doctor can run on a patient; and what kind of tests those can be. Instead of using the latest, most accurate, and- often- most expensive tests; the doctor is forced to use an older version that may be less reliable and is, definitely, cheaper. Of course, the doctor could always do a different version of the test, one not covered by the insurer, and pass the cost onto the patient- who probably already pays considerable amounts to be insured. However, this isn't a satisfactory solution, for many reasons.
One of the most common reasons for bankruptcy is debt from bills associated with health care. Adding more debt onto someone who, if the condition is serious- or debilitating- enough, is already missing work, is not going to help that person's recovery. Many studies have shown that stress can slow recovery in otherwise healthy patients. Additionally, doctors and patients often don't know how much a procedure, or test, will actually cost.
It does seem unfair that our government pays hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to fight a hugely unpopular war, while refusing to give basic preventative health care to its own citizens. Mandating coverage isn't going to fix the problem of rising health care costs. Mandating insurance, as it has in the past, only puts more power in the hands of Insurance Companies. Whatever the solution may be, it's not requiring health insurance. Read More...
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