Academic medical centers provide cutting edge acute care, train
tomorrow's physicians, and carry out research that will expand the
range of treatable and curable illnesses. But these centers
themselves may need urgent care --experts generally agree that many
are suffering acute --even life-threatening --financial distress.
Many academic medical centers are suffering for several reasons:
in-patient admissions are down, as many procedures that once
required a hospital stay are now performed on an out-patient basis
or in a physician's office; managed care plans have negotiated
discounted fees that cut hospital operating margins; the Balanced
Budget Act of 1997 curtailed Medicare reimbursements, lowered
margins and pushed some into the red; the revolution in information
technology is imposing large new capital costs; and the character
of medical education is receiving its most thorough review in
decades. While there is a general consensus that medical centers
are under pressure, experts disagree about the depth and
pervasiveness of the current financial distress. Are they whining
about financial pressures other, less-favored sectors find routine;
or is the high quality American teaching hospital becoming an
endangered species --that could face extinction if nothing is done.
Because academic medical centers perform such important jobs, it is
critical to determine the true nature and depth of their current
financial problems --and then fashion analytically sound and
politically sustainable solutions. This book brings together chief
executive officers of major medical centers, university presidents,
senior members of Congressional and executive office staffs, and
leading analysts. These experts address the key issues and
prescribe remedies both regulatory and legislative to ensure that
the teaching hospital remains a picture of financial health.
Contributors include Nancy Kane (Harvard School of Public Health),
Jamie Reuter (Institute for Health Care Research Policy, Georgetown
University), Peter van Etten (Juvenile Diabetes Foundation), Ralph
Muller (University of Chicago Hospitals and Health System), James
Robinson (School of Public Health, University of California,
Berkeley), David Blumenthal (Institute for Health Policy,
Massachusetts General Hospital), Edward Miller (Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine), Spencer Foreman (Montefiore Medical
Center), Lawrence Lewin (Lewin Group), Gail Wilensky (Project
HOPE), Robert Dickler (American Association of Medical Colleges),
and Kenneth Shine (Institute of Medicine).
General
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