Detroit Medical Center Asks State for $28M To Stay Open
In a hearing before the Michigan House Appropriations Subcommittee on Community Health on March 21 in Lansing, Mich., officials from the Detroit Medical Center asked the state to immediately release $28.2 million in unallocated funds from the state's Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund as a "stop-gap measure" to keep the hospital open, the Detroit Free Press reports (Norris, Detroit Free Press, 3/22). The DMC, the city's largest hospital, is expected to post operating losses of $80 million for 2002, adding to more than $300 million in losses since 1997. Last year, the center spent more than $130 million to treat uninsured patients and cared for more than one-quarter of the city's Medicaid beneficiaries (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 3/6). "This immediate support would give us a one-year window to cover some of our losses and keep us open," Dr. Brooks Bock, chief of emergency services for the DMC, said. For a long-term fix, Bock said the hospital is pushing for an increased property tax that would bring the hospital about $24 million a year. "We are caring for an increasing number of uninsured patients. ... The increasing demands the community, region and state are placing on us to be ready in case of a homeland attack are taxing us substantially," Brock added.
Hutzel Women's Hospital Asks to Contract Directly with State
Dr. Thomas Malone, senior vice president of managed care for the DMC, asked the subcommittee to let the Detroit health system bypass Medicaid HMOs and managed care plans to contract directly with the state for reimbursements for deliveries at Hutzel Women's Hospital, a DMC affiliate. Malone said that contracting with the states would eliminate the 12% or more of the "already-low" Medicaid payments that go to administrative costs. Hutzel delivered 5,500 babies in 2002, 80% of which were covered by Medicaid; the hospital loses $1,800 to $3,000 on every Medicaid delivery, according to Malone (Detroit Free Press, 3/22).
