Company closing Illinois facility to open new hospital in Wisconsin

A week after announcing plans to close St. Francis Hospital & Health Center in Blue Island, IL, because its treatment of uninsured patients was a financial drain, SSM Health Care has announced plans to build a 50-bed hospital in Janesville, WI. SSM’s chief executive acknowledged that the timing of the announcement to build in a more prosperous region than Blue Island was "difficult." Janesville is home to a General Motors plant with more than 2,000 union workers known to have some of the richest health benefits in the country. The St. Francis closing had already had escalated the debate about whether non-profit hospitals should be required to provide a specific amount of care to the uninsured in order for them to keep their tax-exempt status.