Month: December 2011

Existing and soon-to-be health care providers in Rock County are making money. Their combined balance sheets for their most recent fiscal year show an excess of revenues over expenses of nearly $90 million. How is it, then, that Mercy Health System, SSM Health Care of Wisconsin, Beloit Health System and Edgerton Hospital and Health Services are all referred to as "not-for-profit" entities? (JANESVILLE GAZETTE, 12/13)

A new hospital. Two new clinics. Millions of dollars more spent on remodeling and expanding area health care facilities. Why the spending explosion in the local health care industry? Will it improve local health care or is it a medical arms race simply intended to attract more patients? (JANESVILLE GAZETTE, 12/13)

The goal might have been admirable in the mid 1970s: restrain health care costs and allow coordinated planning of new services and construction in the health care industry. The reality of the federal government's mandate for certificate-of-need programs, however, was such a patchwork of programs that the law was repealed 13 years later. Many states—Wisconsin included—no longer require a formal review and approval of large capital expenditure programs in their health care industries. (JANESVILLE GAZETTE, 12/12)

More than four years ago, the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality set out to compare its information on health care quality with Medicare claims data. The group was one of six nationwide chosen for the research project. "We thought it would be extraordinarily easy," said Amy Topel, who managed the project. "And it didn't turn on out to be." (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 12/12)

When Congress’ special debt reduction committee, the Super Committee, hit a stalemate last month, it was a bad-news/ not-so-bad news situation for the hospitals in River Falls and Hudson. (PIERCE COUNTY HERALD, 12/9)