Jackson Jambalaya

The powers at be working for St. Dominics must be freaking out. If it goes through they will be isolated and alone with a 2 large deep pocket health systems and a state supported system to compete with.

interesting times.

Both should be taxed

St. D will be fine. They are a Catholic owned and operated facility and overall private healthcare at St. D is somewhat less expensive.

If Chris Anderson, ceo in Jackson, has anything to do with it, it will flop. Look at his handiwork on the coast.

Chris Anderson has been planning this since day one. #fatpockets he has outsourced most of the services at Baptist preparing for the buyout.

Wait, Chris Anderson isn't in jail yet?

Baptist doesn't have a defined benefit pension but check your 401k and make sure the match shows up. If you are missing 5 years worth, you might have a problem.

St D is ripe to be bought....last catholic hospital.....nuns are already out of admin.....look for it to merge with CHS or some such group.

People needing to be hospitalized for any reason don't give one whit about this crap. They could not care less who the man behind the curtain is.

We are impressed by 'illusions of safety' though, aren't we? We see men in green pants wearing hats that make them look like Royal Canadian Mounted Police and we think, 'Boy, this must be a safe place'.

We notice surroundings at Baptist and the people lounging at UMMC and think, "Hmmm, this is not where I want to be overnight."

The humongous atrium at St. D. and the nice 'customer lounge' at River Oaks are inviting but the 'visitors' at University almost appear to be vagrants and they're scary looking. And if you have to drive through streets resembling those of a third world country just to get to your hospital, who wants that?

Up in the delta, there's a slogan: "Take me to Ruleville". Down here, its, "Please, God, don't take me to Canton!"

Why didn't Baptist fire the guy that screwed the Singing River employees? That should have been a crime.

I thought the sister of mercy (previous owners of St D's) sold the hospital. Is it still owned by some catholic group?

Waiting fof UMMC to release a crybaby statement about hospitals growing in 3...2...

St. D is owned by the Dominican sisters of Springfield Illinois. With Sister Dorthea retired- sort-of still on board though, the CEO Claude Harbarger is an incredibly weak leader.I worked there 5 years so I saw first hand. Mr "decision by committee".

The two Baptist systems make sense to merge. I do a ton of business with the Memphis group facilities in Oxford, Calhoun City, New Albany, Columbus and Jonesboro, AR , etc. They are visionaries, they get it.
MS. Baptist also to a degree.

St.D follows the lead of their Attorney and board member Eddie Bruninni. Claude Harbarger is his lap dog. Ole Eddie was behind the Madison campus CON push...you know, the campus with the health club and a few soccer fields...still no hospital there. Baptist will get the next hospital in Madison Co.
Yes St.D is sweating this and rightfully so. Going to be interesting to watch.

It appears Baptist has been blowing through money like the federal government of late with their purchases of failing smaller county hospitals. Unless they've been able to work wonders with those and turn them around financially, not surprising they are looking for a bailout from a larger institution.

If St D ever sells which is doubtful it would be to one of the large Catholic groups loke Seton

"Ole Eddie was behind the Madison campus CON push...you know, the campus with the health club and a few soccer fields..still no hospital there. Baptist will get the next hospital in Madison Co."

7:36; Are you hollow-headed enough to believe all a group needs to build a hospital is a truckload of shovels? Surely you are aware of the C.O.N. roadblocks employed by this state.

It makes perfect sense to purchase a large tract of land in anticipation of one day being allowed to break ground. All of the big boys have done that in Madison County.

First you come up with the money. Then you buy some land. Then you establish a presence (soccer fields, a nice astroturf miniature football field that can be seen from the interstate, a big inviting pond, an expanse of land with a clinic on it, a health club, a billboard or two). Next, you wait.

Everybody competes for the same patient dollars coming to this area from all over the state and elsewhere. It's not about miniature statues of Jesus on the walls, atriums, snack bars, trendy coffee machines, chrome, little glass rooms that sell flowers and plastic junk, elevators or big stuffed lounge chair for naps. It's about making money in the gubment-insurance game.

And it's also about the trickery being employed by corporations all hustling the name of Jesus in order to scam customers into thinking if they get treated at this place, or that one, they'll be closer to divine intervention.

UMMC should buy St. "D", they need the expansion room.

Baptist out of Memphis is hurting. A few years ago, the only 2 of their facilities that "made money" (i.e. underwrote the losses at the other sites) were Columbus & Oxford (predominantly). Since then, Columbus has dipped some and things in Oxford have gotten rocky. Word from employees is that they are in trouble.

Well said, 9:09. And I was taught that what you describe is "TAKING G--'s NAME in VAIN". Deliberately doing so, in the pursuit of profit, is (so I was taught), the UNFORGIVABLE SIN.

Whether or not it's unforgivable, it's BLASPHEMY, and there's no way in Hell I'll trust a medical corporation which stoops to blasphemy, in order to lure (and control) gullible customers.

May we pray or is it Eddie?

Of course I am aware on the COM road-blocks. I deal with the State on CONs issues monthly for my clients monthly. This includes the Baptist system.
Have a nice weekend Claude.

Baptist (Memphis) lost $100 million last year. Baptist (Jackson) lost $19. How is this "merger" going to benefit either of them?

It is truly the days of buy, sell, or merge into a larger system. The patients will not benefit from this nor will the physicians. Bundled payments and payments for "episodes of care" will leave patients hurting and doctors fighting. None of this is good.

Baptist Jackson has always been loose with the money---they buy property right and left and some has never been used, like the 70+ acres on Lakeland & land in Madison---we are talking about millions of dollars just setting there. Their real estate director must be a complete idiot. I blame the Baptist Jackson Board of Directors---there are some very talented people on the Board---they must not know a damn thing about real estate. I do not feel sorry for Baptist but I feel for the employees and most of all the patients. IT'S ONLY MONEY FOLKS !!!!!!!!

"May we pray or is it Eddie?

Of course I am aware on the COM road-blocks. I deal with the State on CONs issues monthly for my clients monthly. This includes the Baptist system.
Have a nice weekend Claude."

I don't know who the hell Eddie is and don't know anybody named Claude. I'm just a lay-person but have enough sense to know it takes more to build a hospital than what you suggested and your bullshit post about soccer fields is just that. But, I suspect you knew that already since you 'deal with it for your clients monthly on a monthly basis monthly and all that'.

Wait til Chris Anderson sells everyone on Clinical Integration- Singing River Hospital lost millions on this load of nonsense because of Chris.

Speaking of Baptist, it is well known that while the devote Board of Directors pander for large charitable donations and the like, the few board members that know what good health care is all about, go to Rochester.

If we have separation of church and state and since the gubment owns our health and our healthcare, how come the ACLU (largely a Jewish organization) is not all over the name BAPTIST HOSPITAL? What's a gall-bladder issue got to do with bein' Catholic or Baptist?

Just a couple of years ago, you could be laid up in a Baptist Hospital and push the nurse-button and be responded to by a lady who was screwing three doctors, one of whom was your surgeon who was bustin' out car windows with a golf club. But you felt good about bein' laid up at 'Baptist' since it was on the Highway To Heaven.

Where's 'First Atheist' located? Or 'First Hindu'? Is there a footwash station at St. D for all those Islamic docs? Do the Jewish docs make rounds on Saturday? The Seventh Day doc has to be home by dark on Friday so don't be scheduled for surgery late in the day at the end of the week if he's your guy! And Sister So-And-So with a PhD could not care less about your soul. She's there to make sure your insurance pays.

I have no clue how hospitals work.

But.

Have y'all ever looked at what a hospital charges versus what an insurer pays?

What is that all about?

$100,000 bill and insurer may pay $25,000

Seems like hospitals need to get a better return on billings?

Commercial insurance is one factor driving consolidation of hospital systems. The "power" is on their side. Large health systems move the power balance back to the middle. Hospital bills mean nothing... Insurance companies have negotiated discounts for their members and the $25,000 reimbursement on that $100,000 bill was previously negotiated. But you will see extreme variability in what hospitals charge for the same service... a particular surgery may cost $20,000 at St D and $45,000 at River Oaks. Rather than tax them all as mentioned above... all should be required to be non-profit. That's the main difference in what hospitals charge.

Had bilateral lumbar discectomy recently billed at almost sixteen thousand and insurance paid just over $2500. On the EOB, the 'amount you may be billed' is zero.

Jesus is on my side...

Hospital billing is very easy to understand. The hospital knows if you have insurance they will only pay a certain amount. The hospital also knows if you do not have insurance they can charge you what ever they want and you can pay or go broke.

Agree. Tax the hell out of St Dominic's and Baptist. That "spiritual" stuff is non sense. Both of them worship the almighty dollar. They are strictly about maximizing profit and nothing else. Parading those Nuns around and "followers in faith" is a load O crap. They are both for profit corporations with no shame.