The documentary also explores how Medicaid's reimbursements to hospitals are often lower than those made by private insurers - and how that has made it more difficult for safety nets to cover their costs. The disparities in the circumstances of the hospitals are an outgrowth of a failure of social policy and politics. Says Jeff Goldsmith, a long-time healthcare consultant,"The real problem is the inequities in the society as a whole have reached the point where we really need to address them. So you have the situation where, really you have two tiers in a way rich hospitals are getting richer and the poor hospitals are getting poorer." It makes it even more profitable and then they can invest even more. "They're able to attract more commercial, privately insured patients. "So that dynamic you have today in American healthcare is that wealthy hospital systems are able to invest in ," says Siegel. As the investigation shows, the growth of these hospital chains and the subsequent consolidation of the industry, both for-profits and nonprofits, has created a progressively competitive environment that has made it harder for safety-net hospitals to live up to their mission and stay afloat. The film also takes viewers to the hub of the healthcare industry: Nashville, where more than 50 years ago for-profit hospitals chains took root, most prominently Hospital Corporation of America, HCA. "It became very clear that spending money as an organization to gain market share and to increase volume was not effective to deliver quality care." Sudave Mendiratta, chief of emergency medicine at Erlanger. "We were seeing patients in hallways and in the waiting room," says Dr. The documentary traces the story of the safety-net hospital Erlanger, whose struggle to stay afloat led it to focus on more profitable aspects of healthcare, raising concerns among the staff about the hospital's dedication to its core mission. Is that how you want your health care to be delivered?" "This system itself makes no sense and when you have a system that makes no sense, there are going to be some winners and there are going to be some losers. Brad Spellberg, chief medical officer at the safety-net hospital, LAC-USC Medical Center, where the documentary shows the heavy burden COVID took during the winter surge earlier this year. "It's a little unfathomable to me how a hospital system could be making a huge profit in the middle of a COVID pandemic," says Dr. Now, in The Healthcare Divide, this award-winning team probes why some hospitals are thriving and others are in dire shape. Other collaborative projects have included an in-depth look at Trump's Trade War with China and investigations of Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Sandy relief efforts ( Blackout in Puerto Rico and Business of Disaster), and America's affordable housing crisis ( Poverty, Politics and Profit). NPR will air a story as a part of this joint investigation that same day on All Things Considered (see stations and local broadcast times and NPR.org/stations).įRONTLINE, NPR and the Investigative Reporting Workshop have previously collaborated on numerous projects - most recently in Plastic Wars, an investigation of how the plastics industry publicly promoted recycling as the solution to the waste crisis despite internal industry doubts, from almost the beginning, that widespread plastic recycling could ever be economically viable. The Healthcare Divide, a documentary from FRONTLINE producers Rick Young, Emma Schwartz & Fritz Kramer and NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan, premieres Tues., May 18, on PBS (check local listings) and online. Chris Young, chief of the medical staff at Erlanger, the safety-net hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. "Unless there's a substantive change in the way safety nets are funded, things are simply going to keep going in the direction they are, which is a great disparity in how patients are taken care of," says Dr. "Even before the pandemic, many of these hospitals were losing money and the pandemic is only going to make that worse." Bruce Siegel, president of America's Essential Hospitals, says in the film. "I think we're on the brink of a precipice," Dr. This month, The Healthcare Divide, an investigation from FRONTLINE, NPR and American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop, examines the market forces and uneven government support that are deepening the healthcare divide, with profits at some hospitals booming, while many safety nets struggle to stay afloat. Streaming at 7/6c at pbs.org/frontline & in the PBS Video AppĬOVID has put a spotlight on disparities in American healthcare and the large urban hospitals hit hard by the pandemic.īut many of these "safety net" hospitals, whose primary mission is to serve low-income, working-class communities, have been in crisis for years. Inside a COVID-19 intensive care unit at LAC-USC Medical Center.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |