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What's up here with these figures?

 

 

From 2010, when RegionalCare purchased the two hospitals from Coffee Health Group, the amount of charity care provided at ECM dropped from $18 million to $3.51 million in 2012, according to annual hospital reports from the State Health Planning and Development Agency. A RegionalCare official reported ECM provided $3.4 million in charity care in 2013

 

TD reports: "Our policy is exactly the same (as it was before Regional Care purchased the hospital,)" Atwood said. "We are making sure people apply for Medicaid and enforce the policy so we are treating everyone equitably and fairly." Atwood said the charity care policy will remain the same when a replacement hospital is constructed and ECM is shuttered." TD today

 

It looks like increasing Medicaid numbers may be paying off for ECM

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The 2013 &2014 reports of charity care for local hospitals will be interesting.

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From the article:

At the same time, the amount of charity care at Helen Keller Hospital went from $5.55 million in 2010 and $4.86 million in 2011 to $8.31 million in 2012.

 

Also : 

To get the whole picture of uncompensated care, though, hospital officials said the bad debt, or unpaid bills, have to sit right alongside charity care.

 

"Charity care is just a category of this," said Steve Marinelli, chief financial officer at Helen Keller Hospital. "You have to look at charity and bad debt together. The charity care guideline policy is really just saying how much you are going to pull out of bad debt and call charity care."

 

Charity care and bad debt at Helen Keller Hospital in 2012 totalled $23.22 million. At ECM, the total for 2012 is $37.21 million, and at Shoals the 2012 amount was $6.14 million.

My guess is that it has a lot to do with the semantics of what is determined to be "charity" between a profit and non-profit entity.  Lots of things get shoved into the "charity" column in a "non-profit_ entity that is not allowed to be called charity in a for profit entity. RHC paid about $2M in taxes to the local community in 2013, how much did HKH pay to their community?

How many people were turned away from emergent or necessary care at ECM in 2013, compared to HKH? Start showing me those statistics and you might have an argument against RegionalCare.  BTW Squirrelly Daw, or whatever name you are using this week, your antics show your true nature. The doctors have nothing much to do with "free" care, since ObamaCare is in effect, no one has any right to complain about not having insurance, right?

I wonder where we might find a practitioner of Holistic medicine that would take on some cases locally; specifically these hateful Republicans who constantly troll these forums. As soon as one fades back another one seems to appear.

 

The reason for suggesting Holistic is, Holistic medicine is based on the belief that unconditional love and support is the most powerful healer. These traits are obviously absent in every retort on the forums by them.

 

If there is one with these credentials please step forth without slipping on something nasty.

Usually Ms. Prissy, the term holistic (wholistic) , as it applies to medicine and the treatment of patients, refers to the belief that the patient should be treated a whole part, and that there is cause and effect for individual systems. For instance it is not uncommon for the skin (integumentary) to reflect imbalance or disease from the stomach and intestines (digestive).  If one is to follow this approach it enforces the belief that the whole picture should be looked at, not just to focus on one small area and throw medicine or useless money at it. For if you do, and do not fix the underlying problem, the disease process likely returns.

You, unfortunately, started this mud wrestling by attempting to throw RegionalCare under the bus for insinuating that they were not doing their part in treating the indigents in this region. If you want more information, contact them, and I am sure they can give you numbers and instances of care they have rendered not only for Lauderdale county residents, but for Franklin, Colbert, areas of southern TN, and folks from as far south as Haleyville. I have seen the operations at almost every hospital in north Alabama from here to Huntsville, and can tell you that the collection methods and policies for each of them do not differ by much. Any organization that intends to stay in business will do its best to recoup the costs of the services they provide.

The report of charity by ECM being reduced dramatically can only be a testament to the success of Obama Care as the reason, not to  Regional Health Care being insensitive in any way. After all anyone that doesn't have insurance is at fault due to their own ignorance and bad advice from conservatives not to buy insurance. Those who didn't buy insurance should blame no one but themselves if they are billed. Bruner tried his best.

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