COMMENT 320118
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2012-09-14 05:03 PM |
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Duhhhh.
Plus our insurance rates are higher because of this consolidation.
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COMMENT 320124P
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2012-09-14 05:08 PM |
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Interesting. It will also be interesting to read the various points of view on Edhat. Is this consolidation just part of the new health care "industry?" Cottage probably will have explanations. I feel for the independent general medicine practitioners and patients in general.
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COMMENT 320124P
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2012-09-14 05:11 PM |
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The Wall Street Journal has an article on this in today's paper. The reader responses provided, as usual, a varied perspective.
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COMMENT 320124P
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2012-09-14 05:23 PM |
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Cottage Hospital usually is adept at sidetracking the focus of inquiries. Hospitals are a business and doing what businesses are supposed to do: eliminate or lessen the competition, then charge higher prices.
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COMMENT 320140
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2012-09-14 05:36 PM |
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It's the dang helicopters. Cottage owns 6-7 helicopters that aren't on the books.
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COMMENT 320124P
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2012-09-14 05:38 PM |
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This was originally posted during "Happy Hour?"
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COMMENT 320165
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2012-09-14 06:37 PM |
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I think doctors are better off being doctors, not businessmen. I want my doctor to be the former, not the latter. I don't want him or her worrying about running a business. I want and will insist that he/she be focused on my health, period. If they want my money. So if a doctor takes 'employment', effectively, through the hospital systems mechanism, great! The doctors overhead is absorbed by the system and he or she can focus on my, and yours, health needs. Profiteering off of peoples health care needs is, well, sick. Boot the insurance companies, hire the docs and nurses direct for good money, and put them to work fixing peoples health instead of filling out forms for profiteering insurance companies!
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COMMENT 320166
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2012-09-14 06:43 PM |
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A) Cottage doesn't own ANY helicopters
B) The smaller hospitals (GV, Rehab and Santa Ynez) CAME TO COTTAGE and asked to merge, Cottage didn't "take them over"
C) Yes, consolidation does increase negotiating power - that's why the little guys want to join the larger entities, BECAUSE IT MAKES THEIR BUSINESS BETTER!
D) Cottage has the worst PR dept ever, otherwise everyone in the Tri-Counties would know about the incrediable work that goes on there.
E) If you don't like it - drive to Ventura
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COMMENT 320169P
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2012-09-14 06:48 PM |
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165 - if your doctor is employed by a hospital, not only his/her overhead covered, he/she is also under orders as to what constitutes adequate care. If you think he/she can concentrate on you and your health care, think again. He/she comes under regular review for the costs to the system. No, I am not a doctor. I just have friends who are or were and I understand the system.
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COMMENT 320124P
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2012-09-14 07:04 PM |
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As a senior citizen helping care for elderly family without other family here, we don't have the option of driving to Ventura. We are sorry St. Francis is gone and also believe Cottage somehow has to work overcoming being the Big Bully in the Santa Barbara area. Competition used to be as "All American" as Apple Pie.
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COMMENT 320166
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2012-09-15 07:24 AM |
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Cottage does not employee practicing doctors, with the exception of two Chief's of Staff. All other doctors are independant and bill seperately - ever receved an ER bill and a dr bill? In CA, drs aren't allowed to be employed by hospitals. All employees and drs are required to abide by a Code of Conduct that puts their patient's health care first - if Cottage really was "Big Bad Cottage", they would turn away all of the people who don't have insurance instead of treating them and absorbing the cost of their care... homeless, elderly and pediatric care, etc.
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COMMENT 320296P
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2012-09-15 07:43 AM |
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Cottage may not exactly be turning those without insurance away. But they sure are quick about getting them out of the hospital. There are some real horror stories out there. The St. Francis buyout was a real scam to create a monoply. Plus now, in case of a diaster, we have all of out eggs in one basket. If Cottage goes down for whatever reason, we have lost most of our hospital capacity.
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COMMENT 320306
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2012-09-15 07:58 AM |
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By law, Cottage cannot turn away people without insurance, and they are quick to send everything to Collections, even when you do have insurance and the unpaid bills are because they are unable to bill insurance correctly.
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COMMENT 320378
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2012-09-15 10:14 AM |
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If you don't like the prices Cottage and other hospitals charge then do your own health care. Perform surgery on yourself. Cure yourself of cancer. Set your own broken bones.
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COMMENT 320396P
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2012-09-15 10:46 AM |
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320378 - that is infantile. Doctors take a hippocratic oath - what use is that if people cannot afford to see a doctor, because of price gouging. Other countries are far more humane and civilized and think that healthcare is more than making obscene profits.
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COMMENT 320124P
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2012-09-15 11:35 AM |
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Interesting that Ventura Oxnard area has three hospitals and we have two.
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COMMENT 320124P
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2012-09-15 01:24 PM |
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Just curious - In Cottage's acquiring the St. Francis Hospital acreage - did they and the contractors fulfill the mandate?
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RED CREEK
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2012-09-15 01:41 PM |
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Usually consolidation can help in cost reduction. But all depends on the system and the people who run it. My experience with friends and family who have been in the Cottage system hospitals and the Ventura hospital system is that Cottage is superior in every way: staff, facilities, emergency care, hospitalization care and outpatient. I have a friend who is going blind from macular degeneration because the "scan" system had her wait a few months for an "authorization' to see an eye specialist. I don't think that would happen at Cottage. They are not perfect but there is a level of caring and community that I haven't seen elsewhere. But I have never been hospitalized here or even needed emergency treatment, either.
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COMMENT 320539P
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2012-09-15 03:57 PM |
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As per the statement, "Although California law typically prohibits hospitals from directly employing practicing physicians, doctors can be employed by the systems' affiliated foundations., who employs the "Hospitalists" who now see most patients once admitted? My internist doesn't make hospital rounds but uses the hospitalist, but she has no control over who this person is. So, someone must be emplyoying them. And, in CA, are they MD's or nurse practioners or PA's? Also, why isn't Marion Medical Center complex in SM being investigated? They are a Catholic owned hospital, along with French Hospital in San Luis Obispo, and one in Arroyo Grande. Talk about no free choice--being Catholic owned, I bet they limit their family planning services. They did in Texas, I know.
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COMMENT 320552
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2012-09-15 05:00 PM |
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Very well said 287 and 166...
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COMMENT 320698
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2012-09-16 09:44 AM |
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Here is a tip: when demand rises and supply diminishes, the price goes up. Healthcare is a commodity just like any other widget in a capitalist economy. Government regulation of healthcare would obviously be SOCIALISM and we just cannot ever have that!
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COMMENT 320124P
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2012-09-16 10:53 AM |
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In the big picture Canada, Australia, NZ, most of Europe spend less per capita on health expenditures, and have better health care overall. Ask people overseas if their health plan is as horrendous as we're led to believe. Note also in those countries there are not grand, towering buildings named after insurance companies.
Very little is free in this world; we all pay for the billionaires and the multimillionaires. The money gained and lost goes somewhere. If other countries have a working national health plan, why can't we?
By the way, it's called here the Affordable Health Care Plan, voted by congress, as well, partially modeled on Romney's plan when he was governor.
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COMMENT 320882
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2012-09-16 06:19 PM |
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@539P Marion, French, Arroyo Grande, as well as St. John's Oxnard and Pleasant Valley are all part of Dignity Health System and is part of this investigation. St. Francis was also affiliatated with Dignity (previously known as Catholic Healthcare West) and affiliating with CHW in the late 1990's was unfortunately their demise as consolidation did not keep the doors open as hoped.
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