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Prevent rising healthcare costs by stopping healthcare mergers

Insurance companies, health care systems at odds in cost-cutting push

Opinion: Healthcare consolidation in CT is a cause for concernAlthough CT has some of the strongest anti-merger laws, residents are victimized by the continued trend toward health care monopolization.

In CT, a ‘battle royale’ over lowering health care costsCT's insurance companies and health care systems are at odds in a push to rein in costs for the state's residents.

17 called-off hospital deals

DKH/Covenant heads the list

17 called-off hospital dealshospitals, mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, called off, canceled, deals, M&A, health systems, partnerships

Only 5% of $34 billion in spending went to primary care

CT health costs are increasing twice as fast as Lamont hopedHealth costs in CT rose by 6% to $34 billion in 2021, double Gov. Ned Lamont's goal to limit cost growth to 2.9% over the next three years.

Another interesting news report about the effect of Catholic health system effects on doctors and medical personnel

Gov. Ned Lamont rolled out two bills that put a free-market governor at odds with Big Pharma and the hospital industry, a major CT employer. Read on CTMirror.org

The Fight to Treat Patients at Catholic HospitalsCatholic hospitals can often—legally—follow their own rules, to the detriment of doctors and patients alike.

Lamont administration seeks change in CT hospital and drug costsLamont introduced bills that would ban outpatient facility fees that cost CT consumers $400M annually and cap out-of-network patient costs.

Read coverage regarding the

January 23, 2023 Rally at Rotary Park Putnam, CT

Community group concerned over potential hospital merger's impact on access to reproductive healthDay Kimball Healthcare is looking to become a part of Covenant Health, a Catholic health network.

Day Kimball takeover could limit health care, CT legislators sayDemocrats worry Covenant Health, a Catholic health care system, could eliminate some services in northeast CT if it acquires Day Kimball.

Blumenthal Calls on OHS to Reject Closure of Labor & Delivery Unit at Sharon Hospital | U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut[HARTFORD, CT] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal today sent a letter to the Office of Health...

“OHS must stop these health care moves that are based on economic interests rather than health care needs.“

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal

Spread of Catholic hospitals limits reproductive care across the U.S.Catholic health systems now control 1 in 7 beds across the country. That means greater limits on reproductive care, from abortion to birth control.

SaveDKH's efforts in

The Washington Post

Politics

Legislators pledge to tackle health care costs in upcoming sessionLawmakers are targeting the rising cost of health care as a key issue they plan to tackle this upcoming legislative session, after hearing from hospital executives, representatives of insurance and pharmaceutical companies and other industry officials Thursday.

Health care in CT: Where governor candidates stand on key issuesHear from Gov. Ned Lamont, Bob Stefanowski and Rob Hotaling on the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion, rising health care costs and more.

Opinion | Extreme Religious Liberty Is Undermining Public HealthRecent rulings are empowering the moral judgments of a small but politically powerful group.

Healthcare Under the Ethical and Religious Directives

Reproductive Health

Opinion: Women should not be sacrificed for CT hospital acquisitionThe problems of Day Kimball will still exist and this deal will eliminate essential services. Sacrificing women will not save the town.

CT group fighting sale of Day Kimball Hospital to Catholic providerSave Day Kimball Hospital wants CT to reject the Covenant Health merger, citing Catholic directives that could limit reproductive and other health care.

“Their Hands are Tied”: Dr. Debra Stulberg on Religious Restrictions on the Provision of Health Care

Opinion | Why Was a Catholic Hospital Willing to Gamble With My Life?Overturning Roe v. Wade isn’t just about abortion.

Editorial: The indispensable duty of Catholic hospitals

“Medicine can be evangelical.”

Our Sunday Visitor: For Catholics Who Love Their Faith

Another Colorado hospital stops letting women get their tubes tied, renewing questions about reproductive rightsColorado has some of the least restrictive abortion laws, but advocates say women in rural and mountain towns often lack reproductive health care access.

Getting contraception gets complicated for patients at Catholic hospitalsMany hospitals and health care clinics in the U.S. are affiliated with the Catholic Church, which means religious directives might limit the types of contraception they can offer.

Abortion ban linked to dangerous miscarriages at Catholic hospital, report claimsExclusive: Five women suffered prolonged miscarriages, severe infections and emotional trauma at Mercy Health Partners when staff neglected patients’ health to uphold religious directives against inducing delivery, report reveals

Before You Go to a Catholic Hospital, Read This | News & Commentary | American Civil Liberties Union

How Catholic Hospitals Restrict Reproductive Health Services

Catholic hospitals' growth impacts reproductive health care: 'We are definitely sliding backwards in terms of comprehensive reproductive health'Even as numerous Republican-governed states push for sweeping bans on abortion, there is a coinciding surge of concern in some Democratic-led states that options for reproductive health care are dwindling due to expansion of Catholic hospital networks.

Opinion | I don’t want your god in charge of my health careMore Catholic health systems are acquiring or merging with secular ones, which puts God in charge whether patients like it or not.

Reproductive Rights Crushed at OberlinToday on TAP: To save a few bucks, the college leaves students to the tender mercies of a Catholic health system.

Gender-Affirming Healthcare

Health Care Refusals & How They Undermine Standards of Care. Part II: The Impact of Health Care Refusals, Discrimination, and Mistreament on LGBTQ Patients and FamiliesThis is Part II of a two part blog series on health care refusals and how they undermine standards of care. Access to health care for LGBTQ patients and families can be accompanied by health care refusals, discrimination, and mistreatment. Such actions and behavior run contrary to standard of care, and can lead to delays in care, discouragement from accessing needed care, and direct emotional and physical harm for LGBTQ patients.

UMMS Catholic hospital discriminated against transgender man, judge finds | Maryland Daily RecordThe University of Maryland Medical System discriminated against a transgender man when it canceled his gender-affirming surgery at St. Joseph Medical Center because of the hospital’s adherence to Catholic health care rules, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow granted summary judgment in favor of the man, Jesse Hammons, in a ...

End-Of-Life Care

Terminally ill, he wanted an assisted death – but his hospital was CatholicPatients in eight states can now legally obtain lethal drugs to end their lives but face obstacles enacting their wishes as Catholic hospitals expand

Healthcare Financing

Hospital Billing Is a Crime Against American PatientsA visit to a hospital in Europe is an eye-opener to the many ways monopolized U.S. hospitals pad their profits with unnecessary costs.

ONE OF THE MANY REGULATORY FAILURES of antitrust in the U.S. is the nearly complete failure to challenge hospital mergers and acquisitions, which have created monopoly power and degraded services in city after city. When the FTC has tried to move, it has been overruled by conservative courts.

Most hospitals in the U.S. are either for-profits, or nominal nonprofits like large teaching hospitals that behave just like for-profits. Their goal is to maximize market share, particularly for the most lucrative specialized procedures. That means they spend a great deal of capital, not just on acquisitions but on construction of new facilities and on new costly equipment.

How the closing of small, rural hospitals is contributing to a bigger maternal health crisis Financial challenges and low patient count are why many rural hospitals close down but with this comes an increase in the proximity to the nearest hospital and the risk of medical emergencies. NBC News' Steven Romo reports on how this can affect maternal care and problems that arise through pregnancy.

This is what DKH is heading for with Covenant or with any other acquisition where obstetrics is closed first as it does not have high profit margins.

Massachusetts-based Covenant Health experienced $60.9 million in operating losses in 2018, largely due to expenses associated with its $83 million Epic EHR implementation.

Financial services company Standard & Poor’s (S&P) referenced Covenant Health’s operating losses as part of a June decision to downgrade the health system’s bond rating from BBB to BBB- with a negative outlook, according to Boston Business Journal.

$83M Epic EHR System Drives Operating Losses at Covenant HealthCovenant Health experienced significant operating losses after a slow Epic EHR implementation.

CT's big hospital systems are buying up private practices and small hospitals. What does that mean?While regionalizing health care improves the bottom line for Connecticut's hospitals, it leaves patients farther away from medical care.

While regionalizing health care services in this way can improve the bottom line for hospital systems, it leaves some patients farther away from the medical care they need.

Service cuts often follow acquisitions. The cuts have had a particularly strong impact on the state’s rural labor and delivery landscape.Service cuts often follow acquisitions. The cuts have had a particularly strong impact on the state’s rural labor and delivery landscape. Researchers have connected hospital consolidation to rising health care costs.

Why Yale New Haven Health's latest acquisition could mean higher costs for CT patients"In terms of the pocket-book impact for families in Connecticut, [hospital consolidation]...

The sale confirms other research that acquisitions result in losses to the hospital acquired and then hospitals, stripped of value, are resold. Manchester, Rockville and Waterbury (now planned to be acquired by Yale) were previously sold to Prospect Medical Holdings in CA, which extracted value for their investors, then resold the hospitals.

Johnson Memorial, St. Francis Care may mergeExecutives at Johnson Memorial Medical Center and St. Francis Care are exploring an affiliation between the two organizations that they say will benefit both sides and could eventually lead to

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