Critics say large hospital operators that are amassing cash are doing so at the expense of patients
As a Chicago attorney dedicated to representing victims of medical negligence, I am disheartened by the following story. During a time when all consumers are hurting financially, it is fundamentally unfair for hospitals to be spending seemingly unlimited amounts of money on the newest technologies and pass on such costs to patients. Such spendthrift behavior is entirely inconsistent with the lobbying pleas of the healthcare industry in Washington asserting that, depending on how health care reform turns out, the industry “teeters on the brink of financial ruin” (Chicago Tribune, 12/22, Japsen).
Bruce Japsen reports for the Chicago Tribune, the “rhetoric [regarding financial stress] does not match the balance sheets of some of Chicago's largest hospital operators. Many are spending unprecedented amounts on new buildings and seeing some of their best improvements in cash since the dot-com boom of a decade ago. Critics say large hospital operators that are amassing cash are doing so at the expense of patients, charging higher prices when that money could be used to lower costs or subsidize hospitals in a hole.”
The hospitals maintain that they need to invest in the latest medical technology to attract top medical care providers and protect themselves from the uncertain economic conditions and future of healthcare. While hospitals are clearly not the only source of the healthcare problem as they are facing more unpaying and uninsured patients as a result of the economic downturn, they are also not entirely blameless. Unnecessary spending on the latest and newest technology when perfectly functionally but slightly older technology is available is part of the wasteful behavior that contributes to rising health care costs. American citizens cannot afford to pay for continuously rising costs of healthcare and therefore, a balance must be reached between providing necessary medical care, investing in long term machinery, and cutting waste of time and resources including taking a long and hard look at the insurance system.
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