The closing of the Crozer -chester Medical Center is such a large deal that Pennsylvania’s governor appeared last week to connect with what he calls the crisis of healthcare. But bankruptcy is only the latest in a disturbing trend: more than half of adult hospitals in south -eastern Pennsylvania with the highest revenues from the Medicaid revenue have been closed or significantly reduced over the past decade.
Four of 10 hospitals most dependent on the government program for low -income Americans closed. The latest is the Crozer -chester Medical Center in Upland this month. The region also lost the monument to Drexel Hill in 2022 and two hospitals in Philadelphia: Hahnemann in 2019 and St. Joseph’s in 2016.
On the list that has been significantly reduced in the field of Mercy Filadelphia in Western Philadelphia and the suburban community in Eastern Norriton. The ranking is based on data from 2015 from the Care Cings Coszt Cable Care Council Coszt Coszt Coszt.
Hospitals where low -income patients rely on the majority could be even more arduous if the congress warns plans to save hundreds of billions of dollars, hindering people to remain in Medicaid.
“You are tightening the crisis of healthcare, which is brewed in our community of nations,” said Shapiro on Thursday at a press conference outside the closed medical center of the Crozer-Chester medical center, calling on federal legislators to seriously consider the consequences of the proposal.
Aiming at private equity
The main purpose of the Thursday event was to promote bills introduced last week, which would require a review of more health care transactions from the Prosecutor General in Pennsylvania and block them if they are recognized Not in the public interest.
The main sponsor of the Senate version of the proposed legislation is the democrat of Delaware Timothy Kearney. At the hearing on May 7 Hospital closure and wider financial problems In the hospital sector, Kearney noticed that Private Equity funds – which invest mainly for pension funds and other institutions – are not the only problem.
“Sępy Wall Street are a symptom of a larger disease in the hospital sector, financial malnutrition disease,” said Kearney. “When hospitals operate in red, because the rates of reimbursement do not cover the costs of care, they postpone investments that must survive.”
Medicaid covers on average 82% of hospital care costs, According to Nicole Stallings, the CEO of the hospital and the Pennsylvania Health Association, a lobbying group.
Medicaid massive hospitals that remain open
Among 10 hospitals in the area most dependent on Medicaid in 2015 was the Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia. During the antitrust process in 2020 on the agreement of Thomas Jefferson University for its acquisition, Einstein officials argued that they could not afford to improve Einstein enough to make him competitive in hospitals with better reserve. Jefferson ended the takeover in 2021.
Since then, Jefferson closed the emergency department at the former Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park, which was based on the Einstein Philadelphia license. The facility is now used by Mossrehab Jefferson.
Hospitals on the Medicaid list, which remain fully open without changing ownership, are Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and two hospitals belonging to Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic: Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby and Nazareth Hospital in Filadelphia.
Temple receives significant state assistance to lend a hand him cover the losses from Medicaid and uninsured patients.
One of the largest Catholic healthcare systems in the country is the owner of Trinity hospitals, which means that they have an organization with extensive resources. Despite this, Trinity recently consolidated some services in their hospitals in Philadelphia. For example, Nazareth no longer performs surgery overnight, according to the internal announcement obtained by Inquirer. This probably means that the hospital must send emergency cases elsewhere, although Trinity refused to confirm this.
Downsizings of the hospital
Trinity announced the closing of Mercy Filadelphia in West Philadelphia in 2020. Some services, including the emergency department, were preserved through the partnership between the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Public Health Health Management Corp., Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia and others.
California Prime Healthcare announced this month that she would close the emergency department and reduce the suburban social hospital in Eastern Norriton to a 15-member psychiatric hospital. The hospital has already reduced the number of staff by 60 out of over 120.
The number of hospital campuses that have closed in the last decade is greater than the number of full destruction closures, Because some systems have many facilities based on the same license. The Crozer-Chester license included Taylor Hospital and Springfield Hospital, which was also closed. Data on Medicaid Reliance In Taylor and Springfield were not available.
More work for politicians
Before entering the politics of Democrat Delaware Lisa Borowski, she spent years working in the former Mercy Health health system in south-eastern Pennsylvania (now Trinity Mid-Atlantic) and Einstein, two systems very dependent on Medicaid. Currently, a member of the State House of Repressentates, Borowski is the main sponsor of the version of this body, which is to limit private equity.
“I am not alien to the challenges that these hospitals are facing when it comes to their lower line,” she said in a mail in response to questions from Inquirer, adding this improvement Medicaid Reffensem is another issue that the legislators must solve.
“The answer cannot be permission for bad pirate actors of our hospitals, steal their value and leave, leaving everyone to collect the elements as if we had to in delco,” she said.
