SIERRA VISTA — The hospital in Sierra Vista feels the pressure along with the entire country as the health care system faces challenges in patient access to quality care, affordable health insurance and a shortage of physicians.
Representatives from the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center briefed the City Council at a work session Monday, discussing the hospital’s obstacles, goals and need for collaboration from the city and the community at large.
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Health care woes: City Council sees national issue through SV hospital’s eyes
Published on Tuesday, September 11, 2007
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City government spokeswoman Marie Hansen said a bond issue to fund hospital expansion at an east Sierra Vista location is likely on the horizon for local voters, and that’s why the work session was held.
The hospital administration and board of trustees is seeking partnership with the city and the state via legislative ear-bending, toward such goals as “professional liability insurance reform” in Arizona.
It is not legitimate grievances against negligent physicians at issue in such liability insurance reform in Arizona; rather it is that which would prevent frivolous lawsuits that drive up physicians’ liability premiums to a prohibitive cost, said Ron Wagner, chairman of the SVRHC’s board of trustees.
It is a direct result of these prohibitively high premiums that Sierra Vista has the only obstetrician/gynecologist physicians in the Cochise County, as is the case with a number of certain specialists, Wagner said.
Such reform would require amendment of the state constitution, for example like that approved in Texas four years ago, Wagner said. As a result of its reform, Texas is now inundated with permit applications, Wagner said.
Such a proposal has been vetoed by Gov. Janet Napolitano, he said, after which she formed a task force to study the issue. The bill that resulted from the conclusions of the governor’s task force never saw light, and Wagner said state legislators who represent Sierra Vista and Cochise County helped do away with the proposal, unfortunately.
“They also have their lobbyists, and they also call in their marks,” Wagner said. “But this time they were ready and it never made it out of committee.”
This illustrates the need for unity among leadership at the city, county and local health care providers with respect this area’s needs being heard by the state assembly.
People and groups who profit from the existing tort liability definitions in Arizona are a powerful political interest, Mayor Bob Strain noted, like trial attorneys and their lobbyists.
Wagner cited examples of local doctors leaving Arizona and going to states with more physician-friendly tort laws.
Wagner predicted, if the perfect storm of troubled health care in Sierra Vista and across the nation continues to gather, the future problem will be that of getting access at all, not just ever-increasing cost.
Lanny A. Kope of the SVRHC board of trustees said proposals like the insurance liability reform at the state level is not intended to increase someone’s “bottom line,” rather the intent is for nonprofit tax-exempt bodies like SVRHC to make ends meet in providing proper service to the community.
Kope predicted no federal help in states’ tort reform.
Wagner added, “The emergency departments in this state need that legislation desperately.”
As does the local shortage of physicians, federal and state health-care institutions’ policies aggravate Sierra Vista’s situation also, Kope said, in that neither Medicare nor Arizona’s Health Care Cost Containment System pay SVRHC the actual cost of service rendered under those programs.
For rural hospitals like SVRHC, the reimbursement from Medicare and AHCCCS is 75 percent, though it is a 97 percent reimbursement for urban hospitals, Kope said.
“The logic of that escapes me, but that low reimbursement really affects the hospital,” Kope said.
In essence, the Sierra Vista community is losing 25 percent of its reimbursement; that could be money spent on things like the new and costly CT scanner the hospital just purchased, Kope said.
“The economy of health care in the United States continues to baffle me,” the mayor said. The council agreed there needs to be further discussion about how to approach this issue at the state level, in philosophical collaboration such organizations as the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, the American Medical Association and the Arizona League of Cities.
“It helps to bring a good proposal,” City Manager Chuck Potucek said.
In Cochise County, there are about 112 physicians per 100,000 residents, which is some 100 physicians shy of the national average, Wagner said. Also, there are issues with salary compression and competitive hiring hindrances at SVRHC.
The emergency room is becoming the area for primary care. Patients without insurance here and throughout the nation make for longer ER waiting lines, according to the hospital officials’ presentation. The growing lack of insurance and local shortage of general practice and other specialized physicians, the statewide crunch at trauma centers, and increased mental health crises at the city ER are situations that have pushed the SVRHC to the national average of about five hours.
But there is some good news. July 1 marked the beginning of the SVRHC residency program with Midwestern University, a program that hopes to land some new physicians in town. Since the Fort Huachuca hospital was downgraded to a clinic, the physician-recruiting efforts at SVRHC have been much tougher, Wagner said.
The hospital’s east campus expansion project that is envisioned to include a women’s center and is expected to ease the crunch at Sierra Vista’s ER.
Also under consideration right now are SVRHC outreach programs in Sonoita and Tombstone.
Wagner said the estimated bed capacity throughout Cochise County will need to be doubled by 2020. At just the SVRHC right now, there are 88 beds.
Herald/Review reporter Gentry Braswell can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at gentry.braswell@svherald.com.
The hospital administration and board of trustees is seeking partnership with the city and the state via legislative ear-bending, toward such goals as “professional liability insurance reform” in Arizona.
It is not legitimate grievances against negligent physicians at issue in such liability insurance reform in Arizona; rather it is that which would prevent frivolous lawsuits that drive up physicians’ liability premiums to a prohibitive cost, said Ron Wagner, chairman of the SVRHC’s board of trustees.
It is a direct result of these prohibitively high premiums that Sierra Vista has the only obstetrician/gynecologist physicians in the Cochise County, as is the case with a number of certain specialists, Wagner said.
Such reform would require amendment of the state constitution, for example like that approved in Texas four years ago, Wagner said. As a result of its reform, Texas is now inundated with permit applications, Wagner said.
Such a proposal has been vetoed by Gov. Janet Napolitano, he said, after which she formed a task force to study the issue. The bill that resulted from the conclusions of the governor’s task force never saw light, and Wagner said state legislators who represent Sierra Vista and Cochise County helped do away with the proposal, unfortunately.
“They also have their lobbyists, and they also call in their marks,” Wagner said. “But this time they were ready and it never made it out of committee.”
This illustrates the need for unity among leadership at the city, county and local health care providers with respect this area’s needs being heard by the state assembly.
People and groups who profit from the existing tort liability definitions in Arizona are a powerful political interest, Mayor Bob Strain noted, like trial attorneys and their lobbyists.
Wagner cited examples of local doctors leaving Arizona and going to states with more physician-friendly tort laws.
Wagner predicted, if the perfect storm of troubled health care in Sierra Vista and across the nation continues to gather, the future problem will be that of getting access at all, not just ever-increasing cost.
Lanny A. Kope of the SVRHC board of trustees said proposals like the insurance liability reform at the state level is not intended to increase someone’s “bottom line,” rather the intent is for nonprofit tax-exempt bodies like SVRHC to make ends meet in providing proper service to the community.
Kope predicted no federal help in states’ tort reform.
Wagner added, “The emergency departments in this state need that legislation desperately.”
As does the local shortage of physicians, federal and state health-care institutions’ policies aggravate Sierra Vista’s situation also, Kope said, in that neither Medicare nor Arizona’s Health Care Cost Containment System pay SVRHC the actual cost of service rendered under those programs.
For rural hospitals like SVRHC, the reimbursement from Medicare and AHCCCS is 75 percent, though it is a 97 percent reimbursement for urban hospitals, Kope said.
“The logic of that escapes me, but that low reimbursement really affects the hospital,” Kope said.
In essence, the Sierra Vista community is losing 25 percent of its reimbursement; that could be money spent on things like the new and costly CT scanner the hospital just purchased, Kope said.
“The economy of health care in the United States continues to baffle me,” the mayor said. The council agreed there needs to be further discussion about how to approach this issue at the state level, in philosophical collaboration such organizations as the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, the American Medical Association and the Arizona League of Cities.
“It helps to bring a good proposal,” City Manager Chuck Potucek said.
In Cochise County, there are about 112 physicians per 100,000 residents, which is some 100 physicians shy of the national average, Wagner said. Also, there are issues with salary compression and competitive hiring hindrances at SVRHC.
The emergency room is becoming the area for primary care. Patients without insurance here and throughout the nation make for longer ER waiting lines, according to the hospital officials’ presentation. The growing lack of insurance and local shortage of general practice and other specialized physicians, the statewide crunch at trauma centers, and increased mental health crises at the city ER are situations that have pushed the SVRHC to the national average of about five hours.
But there is some good news. July 1 marked the beginning of the SVRHC residency program with Midwestern University, a program that hopes to land some new physicians in town. Since the Fort Huachuca hospital was downgraded to a clinic, the physician-recruiting efforts at SVRHC have been much tougher, Wagner said.
The hospital’s east campus expansion project that is envisioned to include a women’s center and is expected to ease the crunch at Sierra Vista’s ER.
Also under consideration right now are SVRHC outreach programs in Sonoita and Tombstone.
Wagner said the estimated bed capacity throughout Cochise County will need to be doubled by 2020. At just the SVRHC right now, there are 88 beds.
Herald/Review reporter Gentry Braswell can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at gentry.braswell@svherald.com.
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don wrote on Sep 11, 2007 7:38 AM:
" DOCTORS ARE NOT SUED BECAUSE WORKING PEOPLE CAN NOT AFFORD LASWERS THAT WANT UP FRONT MONEY. in fixing their prices they need to wake up and realize, they are putting us back in the dark ages. you can't beat down the majority and break them , then think you can black mail them. been there for years and don't expeckt ill ever be able to afford a doctor. "