Thursday, February 9, 2012

If Universal Health Care Works, Why Is Boston Medical Suing Massachusetts Over Reimbursements?

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Friday, October 30, 2009, 1:03
This news item was posted in Medical Information category and has 9 Comments so far.

Boston Medical Center filed suit yesterday against the state, accusing officials of illegally cutting payments made to the hospital for treating thousands of poor patients, a decision executives said could financially unravel the urban hospital’s key services.
BMC – where half of the patients earn less than $20,000 annually, 30 percent do not speak English, and one-third are on Medicaid – estimates that it will lose $175 million in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, an 18 percent operating loss. By the end of this year, the hospital is likely to be $38 million in the red, its first loss in five years.
Hospital executives blame these projected losses on the state’s decision to slash the amount it pays BMC for treating a Medicaid patient in the hospital from $12,476 per admission last year to $9,323 this year and for paying what the hospital considers inadequate rates to care for uninsured patients and newly insured patients.

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9 Responses to “If Universal Health Care Works, Why Is Boston Medical Suing Massachusetts Over Reimbursements?”

  1. mopar Mike aka tea party mobster said on Friday, October 30, 2009, 2:39

    National health care is a complete failure. Why do you think it shut down 7 months after Hawaii started it ? God bless. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,4405…

  2. Sadcat said on Friday, October 30, 2009, 7:25

    If you had been paying attention, you would know that the whole purpose of the health care proposals is to prevent things like this from happening. The costs of caring for the uninsured won’t need to be borne by the hospitals themselves or by other people IF THE PATIENTS HAD BEEN INSURED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

  3. H2O Engineer said on Friday, October 30, 2009, 8:29

    Because the system in Massachusetts was put together by Mitt Romney, a Republican, who obviously did not know what he was doing.

  4. Mr. Wolf said on Friday, October 30, 2009, 11:14

    If the number of law suits filed is your criteria for determining if a system of health care is good or not. Than our current system is as bad as it gets.

  5. Hater Police said on Friday, October 30, 2009, 14:58

    Obviously it works in western Europe. And has done for years.
    I have no idea what problems there are with the Massachuetts created for health care… wasn’t that a Romeny project?

  6. China owns USA thanks to libs!! said on Friday, October 30, 2009, 17:10

    Seems like another blue state. Is about to go under some more. The only difference. Massachusetts is the Democratic capitol. lol

  7. Dickn Cider said on Friday, October 30, 2009, 21:09

    Great article. This is why universal health care is so important.

  8. Bob Loblaw said on Friday, October 30, 2009, 21:26

    I’m confused, are you trying to say that the federal government is proposing universal health care? That’s not what’s on the table. Sure you can come up with one example of a failure but that would still be a straw man argument. Universal Health Care is not what is being proposed.
    I’m not in favor of Congress’s plan but that certainly doesn’t mean that I should misrepresent what’s actually being proposed. This is how good plans get stopped and how bad plans get through. People lie and mislead others and then we miss the actual points.

  9. Joshua C said on Saturday, October 31, 2009, 3:39

    As someone who has either had my own insurance and had to pay premiums, or at times been without insurance and had to pay the bills in their entirety, it comes down to corporate greed. Yes, a hospital is a life-saving facility, but it is still a company. I’ve used several different ones in hopes of avoiding what follows below.
    Now, having had to pay bills (and done so without complaint, having no problem carrying my own weight), I’ve had to search through pages of EVERY single item/treatment that was used/administered.
    Let me tell you, hospitals (some, not all) LIE and STEAL. If you’ve NEVER had to do this, consider yourself lucky. They WILL charge you for items you didn’t receive or treatments that weren’t administered.
    If you ever DO have look at a page-by-page print out, you’ll see this. Also, charging $22 dollars for an aspirin? Not even close to fair or okay or decent. Unfortunately, it’s true. So after having gone through this, I don’t mind if they get screwed a little bit. All they do is bend you over and screw you financially – then charge you for the lube they DIDN’T use.
    State health care does the same that private health care companies do – they haggle over price to save themselves money.

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