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Plan eyes rescue of ailing hospitals
Step seen too late to halt closing of Deaconess-Waltham
By Raja Mishra and Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff, 2/6/2002
A sweeping health care bill now in the works could empower the state
to save struggling community hospitals - but not in time to help the
116-year-old Deaconess-Waltham Hospital, scheduled to shut its doors
in April. With the majority of Massachusetts hospitals losing money,
members of the
Senate Health Care Committee yesterday warned that, without legislative
action, the future could be filled with similarly jarring shutdowns
all over the state.
"We know that about two-thirds of hospitals have been in red ink.
Waltham is immediate, but there are others that could crop up any
day," said Senator Richard T. Moore, an Uxbridge Democrat, who chairs
the committee. Supporters of the hospital crowded the hearing hall
yesterday and presented Acting Governor Jane Swift with petitions
containing 14,000 signatures asking for immediate help from the state.
But lawmakers were preoccupied with the next Waltham.
"There's no question that there are many hospitals on that list [of
those nearing closure]," Assistant Attorney General Dean Richlin told
the committee.
Lawmakers have been exploring whether the attorney general has the
authority to intervene in hospital closure cases, concluding the office
largely has no power in such matters. But the new bill might change
that.
The measure, which Moore plans to introduce within the next two weeks,
would allow the state Department of Public Health to monitor a hospital's
books, allow the attorney general to monitor all hospital business
dealings, and permit the state to take over hospitals in danger of
closing.
"The whole theme of the bill would be to prevent hospitals from closing
or, if they close, to make it an orderly process," Moore said.
The bill is expected to take at least several months to wind through
the legislative process - too long for Deaconess-Waltham. That hospital,
which sits on Hope Avenue in downtown Waltham, lost $5 million for
its owners, CareGroup, last year. It is projected to lose $8 million
this year, its ninth money-losing performance in 11 years. Last year,
CareGroup built a $4.5 million oncology unit and refurbished the emergency
room, hoping to attract new patients. It failed. On Jan. 11, CareGroup
dismissed the hospital's board of trustees and gave the state notice
that it would close the hospital, catching health officals by surprise.
A rush ensued to find a buyer, much the way faltering Whidden Memorial
Hospital in Everett was saved last year when it was sold for $5 million
to Cambridge Health Alliance. But so far, no buyers for Deaconess-Waltham
have emerged.
A recent Massachusetts Hospital Association study found that only
six of 58 area hospitals examined earned a profit from 1997 to 2001.
Hospitals blame their financial woes on pressure from health insurers
to keep costs down and inadequate payments from Medicare and Medicaid,
the government programs that
insure the elderly and poor.
Boston-area community hospitals face an additional complication: the
Boston teaching hospitals, whose prestige draws away patients from
all over the state.
In turn, the state finds itself impotent to stop closures. It cannot
monitor hospital finances in any timely way, even though advance warning
would increase the likelihood of finding buyers for troubled institutions.
It cannot legally order hospitals to stay open. And the state's distressed
hospitals fund, used to prop up ailing facilities, has been reduced
from $15 million to $5 million by Swift's recent budget cuts.
Alan Sager, a Boston University health care economist and frequent
critic of hospital spending practices, argued for more dramatic reform
measures, including a provision for the state to take over failing
hospitals, which will be part of Moore's bill.
Two years ago, the Legislature passed a law that allows state officials
to take over ailing health maintenance organizations - a law that
turned out to be crucial in saving Harvard Pilgrim Health Care from
collapse. At the time, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who along
with the insurance commissioner temporarily ran Harvard Pilgrim, called
for a similar law for hospitals, but the proposal didn't take off.
The Senate Health Care Committee is expected to take up the bill as
soon as it's introduced.
This story ran on page B3 of the Boston Globe on 2/6/2002. ©
Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. |
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