Hospitals continue to be challenged by the ongoing recession. California’s community hospitals and emergency rooms provide life-saving care to anyone needing it, despite their ability to pay for the health care services received.
Last year, California's community hospitals provided more than $12 billion of uncompensated care. Of that total, $3.8 billion of charity care and other uninsured health care services were provided by hospitals to their patients and to their communities.
California's community hospitals are not resistant to the negative impacts of the current economic recession. Hospitals are struggling with deteriorating revenues and increases in bad debt, and they are having to make very difficult choices to reduce services, make staff reductions, or close services altogether.
Adding to the financial tightrope for hospitals is California's growing unemployment rate - now exceeding 12 percent and one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. As more Californians lose their jobs and health insurance, people are relying more and more on California’s ERs for basic health care services which is driving up the cost of care for everyone.
As the recession continues, a report from Moody's Investors Service says that the signs of recovery are mixed for certain sectors, including hospitals, that will continue to "face significant political, economic, financial and capital market uncertainties."
February 10, 2012California HealthlineFebruary 09, 2012
In 2012, California hospitals will encounter significant
financial obstacles and some will be at risk for closure,
according to a forecast by the California Hospital Association,
Payers & Providers reports.
Although the U.S. economy is beginning to show signs of recovery,
hospitals continue to be adversely impacted by the lingering
effects of the economic recession, according to new data from the
American Hospital Association (AHA).
Non-profit hospital chiefs who think they’ve been dragged through
the wringer with the credit crunch and the recession should not
think the worst is over, according to a new Moody’s Investor
Service report, which could be summed up in short: Brace
yourselves for more bad news and changes for many years ahead.
A new report by credit reporting giant TransUnion concluded that
hospitals around the country are not only being hit hard by the
recession, but California’s facilities may be faring worse than
others.
California’s hospital emergency rooms (ERs) are there for you
when you need them most. They see everyone who enters their
doors, despite their health issue or their ability to pay for
services. Over the last decade, California has lost more than 70
community hospitals and emergency rooms, and the remaining ERs
are under ever increasing pressure to care for the growing number
of patients who are entering their doors.
My mother had been in pain for sometime in her abdomen and in
her back. Eventually, the pain became so bad that I took her to
St Mary’s emergency room…
