September 19, 2008 3:09 PM
Hospital execs: Business pays for health-care problems
By Elizabeth Slowik
Health care leaders told Regional Policy Conference attendees what is making their industry sick: Low payments from Medicaid that cost West Michigan hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars annually; term limits that boot legislators out of office just as they are beginning to understand health care issues; the shortages of nurses; and a system of payment that pays providers “to do something to people, not for them,” as Metro Health Hospital CEO Mike Faas put it.
“This is a taxation you’ve not voted for which you are paying for,” Spectrum Health President & CEO Rick Breon said of the gap between Medicaid payments and the health care costs. The gap results in premium increases to employers to cover the losses of providing care.
“We can make changes in Medicaid and you don’t have to add one dollar to the system,” Breon said. “Just look at who is the most efficient, who makes it work and copy those things.”
The session was moderated by Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon. Faas and Broen were joined by Mercy Health Partners President & CEO Roger Spoelman and Van Andel Institute CEO David Van Andel.
The executives agreed that business owners are nearing a breaking point and may send more employees into the individual insurance market.
Broen called for a thorough “vetting” of issues on any legislative reform in the insurance market. Spectrum owns Priority Health, one of two dominant insurers in West Michigan, which opposed proposed legislation proposed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to change the individual insurance market.
“There is no plan for changing health care, and that has to change,” Breon added. “One of the reasons we haven’t had comprehensive reform in this state is term limits.”
Blue Cross President & CEO Daniel Loepp, whose nonprofit company was a major sponsor of West Michigan’s first-ever policy conference, opened the session.
Breon defended Spectrum Health’s construction binge, and said the system may spend another $700 million over the next decade. “If you look at the actual amount of premium cost associated with all the building, it’s 3 percent,” he said. Faas, who presided over last year’s move of Metro Health Hospital from Grand Rapids to a new $160 million facility in Wyoming, agreed that health care costs are far more connected to the personnel than the bricks and mortar.
“One of the things we haven’t done is raid each other’s nurses in a bidding war,” said Faas. The biggest bottleneck in educating more nurses is providing enough qualified instructors, the panelists agreed.
“This is a taxation you’ve not voted for which you are paying for,” Spectrum Health President & CEO Rick Breon said of the gap between Medicaid payments and the health care costs. The gap results in premium increases to employers to cover the losses of providing care.
“We can make changes in Medicaid and you don’t have to add one dollar to the system,” Breon said. “Just look at who is the most efficient, who makes it work and copy those things.”
The session was moderated by Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon. Faas and Broen were joined by Mercy Health Partners President & CEO Roger Spoelman and Van Andel Institute CEO David Van Andel.
The executives agreed that business owners are nearing a breaking point and may send more employees into the individual insurance market.
Broen called for a thorough “vetting” of issues on any legislative reform in the insurance market. Spectrum owns Priority Health, one of two dominant insurers in West Michigan, which opposed proposed legislation proposed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to change the individual insurance market.
“There is no plan for changing health care, and that has to change,” Breon added. “One of the reasons we haven’t had comprehensive reform in this state is term limits.”
Blue Cross President & CEO Daniel Loepp, whose nonprofit company was a major sponsor of West Michigan’s first-ever policy conference, opened the session.
Breon defended Spectrum Health’s construction binge, and said the system may spend another $700 million over the next decade. “If you look at the actual amount of premium cost associated with all the building, it’s 3 percent,” he said. Faas, who presided over last year’s move of Metro Health Hospital from Grand Rapids to a new $160 million facility in Wyoming, agreed that health care costs are far more connected to the personnel than the bricks and mortar.
“One of the things we haven’t done is raid each other’s nurses in a bidding war,” said Faas. The biggest bottleneck in educating more nurses is providing enough qualified instructors, the panelists agreed.
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