Case in point in north Texas: Witness the staggering difference between the specialty hospitals that have cropped up like weeds over the past decade (many of th

Case in point in north Texas: Witness the staggering difference between the specialty hospitals that have cropped up like weeds over the past decade (many of them are clustered around the larger hospitals in places like Plano and Denton) versus, say, the public and not-for-profit hospitals that must take all comers. Most of these specialty hospitals oh-so-carefully do not offer "Emergency Services" (as in, they don't staff a room called an "emergency room" even though they, conveniently, have an ambulance bay and are staffed 24/7) so they don't have to accept Medicare or several of the known-to-pay-on-the-low-side private insurance plans. Meanwhile, Parkland, JPS, Baylor, and UTSW get to deal with the "cast-offs" who have no other choice.