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> "The hospitals recorded a $42-million deficit in the last fiscal year on $3.4 billion in revenue, he told me. The red ink was partially the result of an incre
by davidf18 10y ago
> "The hospitals recorded a $42-million deficit in the last fiscal year on $3.4 billion in revenue, he told me. The red ink was partially the result of an increased caseload from Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which was expanded under the Affordable Care Act...."
I work in the industry and know UCSF and doctors there.
Hospitals and doctors have been operating on a very inefficient "fee for service" FFS system and the "Affordable Care Act" ACA is forcing hospitals into programs that are more oriented toward better outcomes spending less money.
Hospitals have way too much overhead compared with outpatient facilities. The staff is heavily unionized with very high salaries. We spend $3.2 trillion per year on health care, far, far higher than other countries on a per-capta basis.
When Intel would have sales problems, it would reduce salaries by 10%. Hospitals are going to have to stop blaming "circumstances" and renegotiate contracts, much the way the major airlines did after deregulation.
- justin66 10y ago> Hospitals have way too much overhead compared with outpatient facilities. The staff is heavily unionized with very high salaries. Is that a UC thing or what? It's definitely not true of IT jobs at, for example, The Cleveland Clinic.
- davidf18 10y agoI was referring to clinical staff. I don't know about IT staff, but I imagine that it would have to be competitive to the local market. I suspect that IT may not be unionized which is why they were able to export the jobs so easily.
- justin66 10y ago> I was referring to clinical staff. Ah, that makes more sense. > I don't know about IT staff, but I imagine that it would have to be competitive to the local market. Nope. That's what I'm curious about: salary for IT positions at the big hospital systems I'm familiar with is surprisingly crap. It's the same pattern at big law firms. There's lots of money to be made at those places, but definitely not for IT people. Not a problem (for me), just something I'm curious about.
- davidf18 10y agoWell, that is helpful to me because it may explain one reason why doctors have having trouble with their EMRs- electronic medical records systems. How do they expect to get quality staff if they're not going to pay competitive rates?