Former Montana Health Staffer Rebukes Oversight Rules as a Hospital ‘Wish List’
A former Montana health department staffer who described himself as the lead author of legislation to scrutinize nonprofit hospitals’ charitable acts said new rules implementing the bill amounted to a hospital “wish list” and that the state needs to go back to the drawing board. The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services recently…
Six Years Into an Appalachia Hospital Monopoly, Patients Are Fearful and Furious
KINGSPORT, Tenn. — Jerry Qualls had a heart attack in 2022 and was rushed by ambulance to Holston Valley Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for a week and kept alive by a ventilator and blood pump, according to his medical records. His wife, Katherine Qualls, said his doctors offered little hope. In an interview…
Your Next Hospital Stay Could Involve Fewer IV Fluid Bags. Here’s Why.
When Hurricane Helene struck in late September, it flooded the largest IV fluid factory in the United States. The Baxter International facility in western North Carolina had been producing 1.5 million IV bags a day, sent ripples through the health-care industry. IV saline and fluids with carbohydrates are used regularly in hospitals and other clinical…
Georgians With Disabilities Are Still Being Institutionalized, Despite Federal Oversight
ATLANTA — Lloyd Mills was tired of being stuck in a small, drab hospital room. On a rainy mid-September morning, a small TV attached to a mostly blank white wall played silently. There was nothing in the space to cheer it up — no cards, no flowers. In February, the 32-year-old with autism, cerebral palsy,…
Nearly All Vermonters Have Health Insurance, but Care Is Tough To Find
Almost all people have health insurance in Vermont, a state famed for its maple syrup and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, yet residents pay the nation’s highest insurance premiums for individual coverage and endure months-long waits for care — and most hospitals here are losing money, according to state reports and interviews with residents and…
FTC, Indiana Residents Pressure State To Block Hospital Merger
Indiana residents and federal officials are urging state health regulators to stop two rival hospitals in Terre Haute from merging. The deal, if approved, would leave residents with a hospital monopoly. Union Health, a nonprofit whose main hospital is licensed as a 341-bed facility, would buy the county’s only other acute care hospital, the 278-bed…
In Vermont, Where Almost Everyone Has Insurance, Many Can’t Find or Afford Care
RICHMOND, Vt. — On a warm autumn morning, Roger Brown walked through a grove of towering trees whose sap fuels his maple syrup business. He was checking for damage after recent flooding. But these days, his workers’ health worries him more than his trees’. The cost of Slopeside Syrup’s employee health insurance premiums spiked 24%…
As Nuns Disappear, Many Catholic Hospitals Look More Like Megacorporations
ST. LOUIS — Inside the more than 600 Catholic hospitals across the country, not a single nun can be found occupying a chief executive suite, according to the Catholic Health Association. Nuns founded and led those hospitals in a mission to treat sick and poor people, but some were also shrewd business leaders. Sister Irene…