Becker's Hospital Review

23 CFO / FINANCE North Carolina AG gets 116 complaints about Mission Health, many related to billing By Alia Paavola T he North Carolina attorney general's office re- ceived 116 complaints about Asheville, N.C.- based Mission Health over a 12-month period, WLOS reported June 8. WLOS reported that most of the complaints were re- lated to billing issues, 23 percent were concerns over quality of care, 16 percent were related to cost of ser- vice, 7 percent were from employees or former em- ployees of Mission Health, and 5 percent were related to charity care requirements. "It's a concerning number, 116 over a year," Attorney General Josh Stein told WLOS. "at's a lot, so we're sharing our serious concerns with the management of the health system and we are going to be on top of this to the extent we possibly can." Mr. Stein told the publication that his office this year dedicated one of his employees to keeping track of all the complaints about Mission Health. Mission Health was acquired by Nashville, Tenn.- based HCA Healthcare in 2019. HCA agreed to certain commitments as part of the deal, including keeping major Mission Health facilities open and continuing to provide certain services. Since the ac- quisition, there have been a number of physician exits from the health system, and an independent monitor is looking into the reason behind the exits. Mission Health shared the following statement with WLOS: "Since January of 2021, we are aware of 15 complaints made to the attorney general's office, nine of which were related to billing and all of which have been re- solved. We address every issue the attorney general's office brings to our attention promptly — both with them and the patient. Our patient care is our first pri- ority. We strongly encourage everyone to contact us directly any time there is a concern so we can address it with them immediately and personally. "Going back to 2020, the majority of billing concerns were made shortly aer acquisition of Mission and primarily regarded questions around changes to med- ical practice operations and a variety of billing issues all of which were resolved." n Should rural EDs be funded like fire departments? 3 thoughts By Morgan Haefner T o finance staffing at small and rural emergency departments, healthcare leaders should consider a model that is similar to how fire departments are funded, according to a June 14 article in Health Affairs. Three takeaways: 1. Similar to a fire department, EDs need to be located in areas that are close to people and can promptly respond to emergencies. How- ever, fire departments aren't expected to prop themselves up finan- cially by charging high prices to put out fires but rather are supported by tax revenue, the authors wrote. 2. The ED could also be seen as a public good, according to the au- thors. They proposed that an all-payer global budget model or dedi- cated tax revenue could fund and staff small and rural EDs with emer- gency physicians. 3. "We see promise in a fire department model to ensure the viability of staffing small and rural EDs. Policy makers need to work with emer- gency physicians, hospitals, payers, and the public to address the economic challenges that threaten the emergency care safety net," the authors wrote. n Why Prime Healthcare's growth strategy in New Jersey doesn't include buying hospitals By Morgan Haefner O ntario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare has a growth strate- gy in New Jersey that is centered on signing contracts with medical clinics as opposed to acquiring hospitals, according to a June 14 NJ.com report. Prime announced it would begin marketing its hospitals in New Jer- sey as a Prime regional network. Prime runs Saint Michael's Medical Center in Newark, St. Mary's General Hospital in Passaic and Saint Clare's Denville/Dover locations, according to the report. Prime has 4,500 employees in New Jersey. Sonia Mehta, MD, the CMO and regional CEO of Prime, told NJ.com that instead of buying another hospital, Prime is looking to sign con- tracts with medical clinics, cross-credential physicians to practice in all of its hospitals and focus on marketing. "The goal is to integrate all three hospitals and regionalize our pro- grams," Dr. Mehta told the news station. She continued: "The goal is any patient who comes through our emergency room or into our net- work through one of our doctors, we want to make sure we're able to provide the full complement of services to them." n

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