The hospital is one of only two within Santa Cruz County and public health officials warned its demise could collapse the health care system in the county and perhaps even the region more broadly, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on. But local and statewide officials sprang into action in the early weeks of 2022 to set a framework for saving the more than 100-year-old health care institution and less than six months later, the community delivered.
The Madera County Sheriff’s Office proclaimed a local emergency for the area in anticipation of the looming closure of the Madera Community Hospital’s emergency department. The hospital’s emergency services will stop effective at 12 a.m. Friday — a few days before the entire hospital is set to shut down due to financial troubles.
Physician employment compensation and contracts can be difficult to understand. Whether seeking employment with a group physician practice, a hospital, health system, academic medical center or in another setting, a physician must understand employment contracts to be able to discuss options.
The month of November ended on a very high financial note at Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon. “We had one of our best gross patient revenue months ever,” VMH Administrator Michael Coyle noted. The hospital ended the month with a gross patient revenue of $4,451,829, compared to $3,556,036 last November, an increase of $895,793. “We were so busy in November, and December is busy as well,” Coyle said.
Though hospitals’ financial circumstances were dire this year, some multibillion-dollar expansion projects have managed to move forward—including the construction of a new $5 billion medical campus in Nevada and a new $4.3 billion hospital in San Francisco.
The omnibus package seeks to stave off expected reductions to Medicare reimbursement for physician services over the next two years. Accordingly, the omnibus increases the Medicare conversion factor by 2.5% for 2023 and 1.25% for 2024.