Tim Rice, the president and CEO of Moses Cone Health Systems, braced employees for new challenges facing the healthcare system and its patients today.
The good news for the hospital, if not for the community it serves, is that Moses Cone continues "to see good patient volumes."
The most immediate hurdle for the hospital in the midst of the current financial storm is financing for capital improvements.
Rice: "As an example, Moses Cone hospital borrows money, millions of dollars, in order to provide for the buildings and materials and equipment that you need to do your job. As an example of what’s happened in the market, the interest rates that we pay have gone up dramatically. In the last two weeks of September, we paid $380,000 more in interest than we had budgeted. This year, which just started Oct. 1, we planned to spend $90 million for new capital improvements. Given what’s going on in the environment we believe we should skinny that down to more like $45 million for this fiscal year."
But the challenges for the hospital reflect more widespread difficulties for healthcare consumers.
Rice: “We believe we will see more uninsured patients who come to us for their care. We will see more people coming to our emergency departments who are not going to their primary-care physicians or who are putting off buying their important medications. We could see people put off elective surgeries. We certainly will see people struggle to pay their hospital bills. We haven’t seen these things happen yet, but we believe they will.”
Can we put universal healthcare back on the political agenda?
1 comment:
If I am elected to Congress, I will work to make affordable health insurance available to all Americans. This would be an important step towards strengthening our economy since the high cost of health coverage, both for individuals and businesses, is eating up funds that could be better used elsewhere. If working people didn't have to pay so much for prescriptions and doctor's visits, they would be able to pay more towards their mortgages and life savings. The cost of employees' health coverage prevents small businesses from being able to expand and pay higher wages. We need new leadership in Washington to bring health care costs under control and guarantee coverage to all US citizens.
- Teresa Sue Bratton, MD
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