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When the ER Is Too Expensive, Where Do the Uninsured Go?
Private equity firms are acquiring physician practices and hospital ERs in order to make a profit for their investors, but this results in high costs and no care for the uninsured as ERs are closing. Where is medicine headed?
The poor and the uninsured, plus those involved in sudden accidents in traffic or their homes, are usually taken to the local hospital ER, but the functioning of these units has undergone a dramatic change in orientation from care to profit and patients will pay the price. “Thirty-three states plus the District of Columbia have rules on their books against the so-called corporate practice of medicine. But over the years, critics say, companies have successfully sidestepped bans…" Where there’s a buck to be made, there’s a way around these bans, and the corporations have found it.
Have you noticed how many of the local hospitals own the "independent" medical private practices in your area? And, in line with this new ownership, are you noticing an increase in normal lab work costs that would have been possibly one-third of what you paid previously? The new owners want all the lab testing to go to the hospital, where fees have greatly increased. Even office visits go up. My opthalmologist used to charge $125 for a visit with an exam, but when he joined a large group, it is now $340 for the same care.
