he interim CEO of the financially strapped Springfield Hospital says its financial structure is unsustainable and its survival will be ‘virtually impossible’ unless it merges with other hospitals in its region.” VTDigger, Aug. 28. As a former CEO at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center from 1982-2010 who was involved in a number of merger discussions, I thought it might be interesting for readers to know that efforts to merge these three hospitals, MAHHC, Valley Regional Hospital and Springfield Hospital, began over 50 years ago, and as is now apparent, none of these efforts have succeeded.
Universal Health Services Inc. is preparing to negotiate a compliance agreement with the federal government as part of a proposal to settle allegations of faulty billing practices. “We have presented to the government what our compliance program entails, and we think it’s fairly robust and comprehensive,” Steve Filton, finance chief of the King of Prussia, Pa.-based hospital-management company, said Wednesday during a health-care industry conference in New York.
A new report funded by the American Hospital Association claims hospital mergers result in better care and savings for patients. But every other independent study shows the exact opposite — that hospital mergers lead to less competition and higher prices. Why it matters: Hospitals represent the largest chunk of U.S. health care spending. And hospitals are acquiring more market power and commanding higher prices — bills that every American pays for in some part.
Health-care company VillageMD said it raised $100 million in its latest Series B investment round led by Kinnevik, a Swedish investment firm. The Chicago-based primary-care provider previously raised $80 million last year in a growth-capital financing round led by Athyrium Capital Management and $36 million by Oak HC/FT in September 2015.
As voters fume about the high cost of health care, politicians have been targeting two well-deserved villains: pharmaceutical companies, whose prices have risen more than inflation, and insurers, who pay their executives millions in salaries while raising premiums and deductibles.