Detroit Medical Center expected to announce sale to Vanguard Health (a for-profit corp)

Source: Detroit Free Press

POSTED: 11:13 P.M. MARCH 18, 2010
Detroit Medical Center expected to announce sale to Vanguard Health
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


The Detroit Medical Center is expected to announce Friday that it is being sold to Vanguard Health Systems of Tennessee.

Details of the plan were sketchy tonight. But a person briefed on the plans said the private hospital company will put up about $800 million. Reports varied, with some saying the price was up to $850 million with $500 million to $600 million paid up front.

DMC, one of Michigan’s largest health systems, did not comment on the report, but had scheduled a news conference for 9:30 a.m. today to announce “a major investment in the city of Detroit.” Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano attend the briefing, along with the DMC’s top leadership.

DMC board members and leading physicians of DMC hospitals received messages late Thursday summoning them to a 7:30 a.m. meeting about “an exciting new direction for DMC and all its subsidiaries.”

Read more: http://freep.com/article/20100318/FEATURES08/100318087/1318/Detroit-Medical-Center-expected-to-announce-sale-to-Vanguard-Health-

Just what I want to see in healthcare.

A park near my house has a lot of gays. SO, the police decided to catch the gays by arresting them if they drove through the park back and forth more than twice. They then impounded the car for $900.00 without the need for due process.

The staff involved wrote themselves a hefty "long overdue" increase in salary to spend all the money they were collecting. Went around applauding themselves at local meetings where I heard of this practice but wasn't smart enough to figure out the scam just then.

See, then, a couple years later they caught someone who fought back. The practice was found illegal. And the city of Detroit had to pay back all the people who had been charged the $900 without having had that pesky due process. (ON EDIT: I think it was just over $2-million.)

By that time the head of the whole practice had cashed all his payroll checks and was given a lovely job as head of the Detroit Medical Center.

If I recall correctly.

Now the center is being sold just as poor people will be able to afford health care downtown.

I bet there is reason to believe that a lot of money will be coming to the once poor hospital downtown, and the sale price, hmm, will it include that prospect? I wonder.

But, there will be palms in need of grease. Plenty of grease. And, I don't trust that guy.

Wish I could remember his name just now.

I'm also not a fan of Vanguard, but that's a different ugly story.

Leaving even fewer places for low income people to go.
Of course this is not going to be limited to Detroit.

This was just put up on the Detnews website.


Last Updated: March 19. 2010 2:55PM
Proposed DMC deal yields concerns, hope for future
Santiago Esparza and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News


-snip-

Daniel J. Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield, said the DMC's switch to a for-profit company "has the potential to permanently alter this safety net. We encourage careful consideration and review of this transaction by stakeholders and regulators."

"While we welcome investment in Detroit and the opportunity for the DMC to improve its facilities and services, we hope that the health system's nonprofit mission to provide charitable access to medical services for the poor is not compromised as a result of this deal," Loepp said.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has worked closely with DMC CEO Mike Duggan when both were in Wayne County politics, hopes the sale will "stabilize" the DMC's standing. She, too, expects the hospital to continue serving the "most vulnerable citizens" of the region.

However, the Michigan Health & Hospital Association struck a different tone: It said the proposed sale is "the most stark example" of the underfunding of health care.

"Community hospitals cannot survive on current levels of Medicaid reimbursement, and patient access to care must be protected," said Spencer Johnson, president of the MHA. "Community hospitals serve as the state's health care safety net. The failure to support these facilities is adversely affecting the viability of Michigan's health care system and our elected leaders must take note."

-snip-

more...



From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100319/METRO01/3190428/1361/Proposed-DMC-deal-yields-concerns--hope-for-future#ixzz0ieRR7XNE