Session likely on PG hospitals crisis (Land of Peasant Living alert!)

Washington Times ^ | April 14, 2007 | Tom LoBianco

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

ANNAPOLIS -- Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown yesterday said it's "probably certain" that Gov. Martin O'Malley will convene a special session of the Democratic-controlled legislature to address the likely closure of two Prince George's County hospitals.

"It's probably certain that in order to complete this, the governor would have to call us back into special session, which is unfortunate because there's literally a daily cost" of running a special session, said Mr. Brown, a Democrat.

The nonprofit agency that manages the hospital system was expected to vote Monday whether to shut down the hospital system, which includes Prince George's Hospital Center and Laurel Regional Hospital, but said it will wait until Wednesday at the request of County Executive Jack B. Johnson, a Democrat.

State and county officials had brokered a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars to transfer operations to a government-backed hospital authority, but the Prince George's Council balked at the arrangement as the 2007 Maryland General Assembly ended last Monday.

Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, was in Ireland yesterday and not available for comment.

Mr. Brown repeatedly has said his role is to serve at the pleasure of the governor, not to push his own political career, and that his time in the U.S. Army has largely defined his position.

"There is no other five-year period of my life that has shaped who I am as a person than those five years of active duty," said Mr. Brown, called upon to broker the hospital deal in large part because of the eight years he spent as a delegate from Prince George's County.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Noticeably missing from the article is any indication of what burden Maryland's illegal alien population imposes on these hospitals.

[cosine]

Illegals may be a burden, but the losses caused by below cost Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are higher.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

A special session in the lege over two hospitals?

PING!

[VeniVidiVici]

So is this an article about hospitals going out of business or about Brown using it to further his career.

I got lost reading it.

[Mr. Bird]

Illegals may be a burden, but the losses caused by below cost Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are higher.

Maryland is the only state in the Union which sets NON-federal reimbursement levels. Medicare and Medicaid are benchmark fees that hospitals nationwide struggle to hit (you try to keep the costs below the defined bill rate; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose).

Maryland inexplicably takes it one step further, defining bill rates regardless of insured status. While I believe Maryland has some of the finest hospitals in the country, such arrangements create ridiculous and unnecessary stresses on an overburdened apparatus.

[StormEye]

"Noticeably missing from the article is any indication of what burden Maryland's illegal alien population imposes on these hospitals."

Shutting down PG County General Hospital is a disaster for the people of the county and the Washington Metro area of Maryland. Certainly the non-paying illegal alien invaders in the county are large factor in the hospital troubles. But the black welfare population of the county has been putting the greatest stress on the hospital system of the county. I especially refer to the emergency room problems of constantly having to deal with the trauma (mostly gunshot) problems, the assualt problems etc. These people are not paying anything usually.

The real trouble is where are they going to send these cases? I expect that now peaceful Howard County General, or Shady Grove Adventist, or Washington Adventist (already over run with illegals) will be forced to deal with PG County cases. Frankly, the hospital system outside Washington D.C. may be at the point of collapse. Particularly in Maryland. And PG County has been slowly circling the drain for awhile. I expect Montgomery County will start having trouble real soon.

[EDINVA]

I’m not too sure PG has a particularly large illegal immigrant population, but I will go out on a limb here and assume it has a higher than average medicaid-medicare burden, and there’s a critical mass beyond which hospitals/doctors cannot survive, especially with the low reimbursements.