A merger of Upstate and Crouse hospitals could make patients pay more for the same–or worse–care, experts say. The hospitals say the goal of the proposed merger is to lower costs, improve care and preserve jobs.
The Senate approved President Dominick J. Ruggerio’s legislation to impose a one-year moratorium on hospital ownership transactions involving for-profit corporations. The bill (S-2022 2610A) would amend the Hospital Conversion Act to require a one-year pause “on the conversion of any hospital governed by this act if the acquiree or acquirer is a for-profit corporation.”
A father and son were sentenced on Friday for conspiracy to commit mail fraud through a scheme to embezzle medical equipment owned by Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan, the Department of Justice announced. Anthony Montanelli, 34, and his father, Steven Montanelli, 63, both of San Ramon, pleaded guilty to the charges on Jan. 14. The Montanellis admitted that the value of the loss to Kaiser exceeded $1.5 million.
Advocates are pushing for New Jersey’s only public hospital to receive some healthcare of its own. As the state continues to recover from the overwhelming Covid-19 pandemic and is flush with cash due to higher than expected tax revenues — and billions in federal Covid dollars — Newark’s University Hospital may be primed with its best shot at acquiring desperately needed funding for infrastructure upgrades and construction of a new campus.
A nationwide shortage of nurses and other staff continued to undermine the financial health of Philadelphia-area health systems during the first three months of the year, a period that included the worst of the devastating omicron wave. This unprecedented spending surge caused a rare loss for the University of Pennsylvania Health System as well for Jefferson Health, Main Line Health and Doylestown Hospital during the year’s first quarter. The need to pay more for workers has also dramatically slashed the performance of the Temple University Health System and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, records show.
Local community needs for obstetric care trump financial viability and staffing challenges at rural hospitals, according to a national survey in JAMA Health Forum. When making decisions about maintaining obstetric care, 64.6% of hospitals cited meeting local community needs as their highest priority, compared to 16.5% that listed financial considerations and 12.7% that considered staffing as the most important factor.