HCA Racking Up Award after Award!

Finally- we've found some positive news out of the HCA camp. Back in 2005, Columbia/HCA was inducted into the famous (or infamous) INFACT Hall of Shame. The criteria just to nominated for such an award; Companies must "use political influence to the detriment of public health".

'INFACT also released a "Corporate Imbalance Sheet" detailing influence-peddling activities and the impact of Columbia's practices on public health.'

INFACT is a national organization founded in 1977 whose purpose is to stop abuses by transnational corporations and increase their accountability.

Let's hear just some of the great things folks had to say at the awards ceremony outside Columbia/HCA's Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas. I'll just go in order from the Union of American Physicians and Dentists full release found here:

"Communities have seen all across the country what they do, they slash staff, cut services, consolidate and down size," said California Nurse's Association (CNA) Labor Representative Beth Shafran. (our neighbors in Arlington can attest to this)

"We're looking at the largest redeployment of charitable assets in history. People are just now starting to realize the scope of this thing." The "thing" she was referring to was the accelerated rate of takeovers of not-for-profit hospitals by for-profit hospital companies. "Time and time again, this is what we see when Columbia is in the picture," Miller told the Banner. When these acquisitions occur, they are shielded from public scrutiny. Public companies are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose every detail of the transaction. ('shielded from public scrutiny'; sound familiar my fellow Concerned Citizens?)

So how does HCA operate? Here's one example that will make you wonder how they really got that Certificate of Public Need for BRMC;

With a price tag of $2 billion, the 1996 US elections were the most expensive ever. Big business, after investing heavily in campaigns, lined up for their rewards soon after the ballots were counted. Columbia/HCA's phalanx of 97 registered lobbyists in 23 states secured certificates of need and legislative approval of hospital deals. Columbia is Medicare's single largest biller as well, deriving 36% of its profits from the federal program. According to INFACT, there is evidence that Columbia has abused this relationship on more than one occasion. (Not satisfied with simply 'playing the system', they'll rip it off too!)

But that's not all: 'Perhaps one of the most serious charges against Columbia is its penchant for acquiring several properties in one geographic area and then closing one or more of them, creating de-facto, localized monopolies, sometimes leaving isolated rural communities without health care.' Well at least HCA doesn't purchase hospitals in poor, less-insured, inner-city areas, only to shut them down and the transfer the beds to a more affluent, better health-insured one, right? Now that would be really bad. Oh- wait- they do that too.

Back to more great quotes:

"They (Columbia/HCA) are rapacious," Columbia Watch editor Carl Bloice said, "Unfortunately it is only when Columbia moves into a community, then they learn what Columbia has been doing in other parts of the country." (looks like I'm right on cue)

"They buy clinics, buy doctors. They go for power and they own you," [Kathy] Berry, PR Director at St. Mary's Hospital in Oklahoma said. "They own your town and your newspaper." (guess we can throw blogs in their too- Loudoun Scoop, TC)

The end of this article, says it all!

In many ways, the problems of modem health care mirror the same transitional difficulties other industries have experienced in the last decade. Market principles dictate standardization and quantification. Costs, in order to be controlled, must be identified, categorized and limited. This methodology may work efficiently with commodities, but more and more physicians and nurses are realizing that it is fraught with pitfalls when applied to human beings.

Medicine is as much art as science, and art by committee cannot, by its very definition, approach the quality that can be attained when individual genius is combined with inspiration.

Human biology has as many variations as there are humans. Whenever systems developed to process commodities with a finite number of variations are applied to a commodity which has infinite variations, a percentage of that product will be lost in the form of spoilage during processing. It is considered an inevitable and fixed cost, built into the system. This irreconcilable collision of philosophies lies at the heart of the for-profit health care controversy.

Shame on you Mr. Miller

It wasn't that long ago, during the campaign season to be precise, that we heard promises from candidates about "listening to the residents" and "judging an application on how it will impact the surrounding neighborhood". As election day came and we saw who our new supervisor would be, the residents of Broadlands opposed to building an intrusive 24-hr regional hospital next door, took some comfort in the fact that our new supervisor would at least be open to listening. Well it looks as if the joke is on us.

Last week the Board of Supervisors, in a shocking move, voted 5-4 to agree to delay the pending trial for HCA's lawsuit against the county and allow them to resubmit their application. Even more shocking ... our very own Supervisor Miller was the one to make the motion. From the minutes of the BoS meeting:

“Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors authorize the County Attorney to request, jointly with plaintiff’s counsel, a continuance of the trial in the case of Northern Virginia Community Hospital, LLC v. Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. I further move that the Board of Supervisors confirm its understanding that the property owner intends to file applications for the proposed hospital for consideration by this Board without any prior agreement for approval. I further move that that this continuance of the case is the with the understanding and direction that counsels for the parties will arrange for the elimination of the claims set for trial next week in a manner that preserves the plaintiff’s ability to appeal in the future only the preemption issue previously decided by the court in the County’s favor”

Lets look at this here. This stinks of the type of behind closed doors, smoke filled room dealing that we threw out the last Board for -- at least we knew where they stood! They campaigned on putting an end tho this very kind of politics, and now less then 3 months after taking office, Mr. Miller, Ms. McGimsey and Ms. Burk are proving that they are cut from the same cloth as the previous board and cannot be trusted.

Especially Mr. Miller. The same man who only 6 short months ago came before us and stated that he understands our opposition to the hospital and would first look at compatabiltiy with the existing neighborhood. He turned around and cut a deal to try to have it both ways. Why don't you try standing up for your constiuents instead of Mr. York and his contributors? You have not only stabbed Broadlands in the back, but you have made a wronged the Dulles South area of your district as well.

Mr. Miller -- Fool us once, shame on us. Fool us twice, shame on you ...