Becker's Hospital Review

30 CFO / FINANCE Essentia Health plans $800M expansion By Alia Paavola D uluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health will invest $800 million to build a consolidated medical campus in Duluth, which will include a replacement hospital and outpatient surgery center, according to the Star Tribune. As part of the project, called Vision Northland, Essentia Health also will build a new clinic building. All together, the new buildings will add 800,000 square feet of medical care space. "Our facilities that we're currently using were built many years ago," Essentia Health CEO David Herman, MD, told the Star Tribune. "We're making our facilities work right now. But as we look forward ... our facilities likely will not be able to support the future practice of medicine much longer." e replacement for Duluth-based St. Mary's Medical Center will be built within Essentia Health's existing campus. e facility will feature views of Lake Superior and more private rooms. Additional details were not dis- closed because the health system is still working to finalize the design. Essentia Health plans to spend $675 million on the new facilities, plus an additional $125 million for renovations of existing buildings on the medical campus. Health system officials first announced plans in December 2017 to transform its campus in Duluth. On May 24, Essentia Health board members approved the $800 million expansion. Construction on the new campus is slated for completion in 2022. n World's 10 most expensive places to be hospitalized By Kelly Gooch M onaco is one of the most expensive plac- es in the world for an uninsured person to be hospi- talized for one day, according to research cited in an article on Yahoo! Finance. Reserachers examined the av- erage cost of a hospital bed for one day in locations across the globe. Here are the top 10 most expensive places for that cost alone. The cost does not include emergency transporta- tion, medicine or surgery. Monaco — $3,444 Luxembourg — $1,813 Norway — $1,343 Qatar — $1,308 Switzerland — $882 San Marino — $845 Denmark — $808 Ireland — $804 United Arab Emirates — $727 Netherlands — $711 n Oscar Health quietly built its own claims processor to simplify physician payments By Morgan Haefner H ealth insurance startup Oscar Health said it finally has the claims process- ing infrastructure to provide clearer physician payments — and turn a profit, ac- cording to CNBC. The insurer has built an infrastructure for provid- er directories and claims processing from the ground up. Oscar's co-founder and CEO, Mario Schlosser, said the in-house system will allow the insurer to simplify the billing process. The ability to pay physicians for practicing during evenings and weekends, and provide transpar- ent procedure costs for members, are some of the advantages Oscar said its system provides. The company said the culmination of better technology, narrow networks and member engagement will help turn around its losses. Oscar lost $92.4 million in 2015 and $124 million-plus in 2016. That year, Oscar hiked premiums and shifted to narrower provider networks, which curbed losses in 2017. Oscar announced expansions into four new markets in mid-May and intends to add four to five new cities each year. "Before you know it, we'll be profitable," Os- car CFO Brian West told CNBC after the in- surer raised $165 million in a funding round in March, which upped its valuation to more than $3 billion. "It's around the corner." n Louisiana health officials send Medicaid termination warnings to 37k beneficiaries By Alia Paavola T he Louisiana Health Depart- ment sent letters to 37,000 Medicaid recipients May 10 warning they are at risk of losing coverage because of proposed budget cuts, reported Nola.com Even if state lawmakers update the proposed budget and find money for the Medicaid program, Loui- siana officials were compelled to send notifications warning benefi- ciaries of the potential cuts. If the proposed operating budget is approved, it would eliminate four Medicaid programs. The cuts to Medicaid would begin July 1. Families and individuals affected by the Medicaid changes would then have seven weeks to find dif- ferent coverage. The 37,000 peo- ple will be contacted by the health department to see if they qualify for a different Medicaid service that isn't being eliminated, according to the report. n

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