Seems I hit a nerve on BMC and CHA

By Jim Stergios
July 29th, 2008

Seems from the letters section of the Globe today that Dennis Keefe of Cambridge Health Alliance, Boston Medical Center Board Chair Marsh Carter, and Mike Fadel of the SEIU cared not for my Op-ed on the health care reform act, and my call to reduce the supplemental payments to BMC and CHA in order to secure a renewal of the federal waiver allowing us to continue with the reform.

Ok, folks, deep breath. Time to reflect rationally. Put aside the war-footing language of “attack” and think outside your own parochial interests. I will do so and not dwell on Dennis’s nice sleight of hand, balling together the uninsured and folks with Medicaid and Commonwealth Care coverage. I will avoid skewering Marsh for pretending that he knows the folks who visit the BMC better than I do.

Most of all, I will agree that the extra funding for the BMC and the CHA “reflects who we are as a Commonwealth.” That reflection is not as benign as you might think.

Let me remind all three letter writers that there are other urban hospitals across the Commonwealth that are “essential to our community,” such as Baystate Health and Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, South Shore Medical (St. Luke’s) in New Bedford, and Lawrence and Lowell General Hospitals. They don’t receive supplemental payments, and they are making the health care reform work without the very generous supplemental payments ($180 million this year) BMC and CHA receive.

A question your letters raise: Are the poor and are the essential hospital services in these older industrial cities any less valuable than ones provided in Boston and Cambridge? In my world, Springfield, New Bedford, and even Pittsfield are part of my “community” and my Commonwealth. Are they not part of yours?

Now that we have got his straight, let me state for the record that I respect all of you and understand your self-interest. Self-interest is fine. But do us all a favor and lose the high-falutin’ rhetoric.

Perhaps numbers will help. As opposed to the largesse shown BMC and CHA, Baystate Health was reimbursed at a rate $8 million below their uncompensated care costs in 2006. The shortfalls at other regional hospitals in 2006 were:

· Lawrence General $13,979,404
· Lowell General $8,992,437
· Southcoast (St.Luke’s) $29,236,479
· Berkshire/Hillcrest $2,184,479

Seems I have hit a nerve, or perhaps this is a rich vein to explore further. More to come on this issue.