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Happy Thanksgiving!
Best Wishes to You and Yours for a Joyous Holiday
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Quick Links
Second Annual Small Business Saturday November 26
Small Business Saturday calls on consumers to support local business. Economists estimate that sixty percent of money spent locally benefits the community, compared to only twenty percent spent at national retailers and chains.
Buy Local Is a Movement
How Consumers and Communities Benefit from Buying Local
Physician small businesses contribute significantly to the local economy.
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) estimates that the economic impact of the average family physician at $892, 177.00 per physician per year. | |
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More Information For You
From EPCMS
Check- Up
To follow
The Future of Memorial,
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Interested in another special topic affecting you and your practice- Click the "Join Our Mailing List" link and follow the steps to sign up to receive any of EPCMS' special topic email newsletters:
Lawmaker's Impact
Political issues and government affairs for the physician
MEDI-
News about Medicare and Medicaid
The Reformer
Updates on healthcare and payment reform
The Future of Memorial,
What's happening to the hospital system
Business of Medicine
Keeping your practice viable
Wellness
Health topics for physicians
Healthy Technology
The intersection of technology and healthcare | | |
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Friends of EPCMS
Email Buddy Gregory
or call 303.663.8982
to learn what this Friend can do for your business
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The Future of Memorial
News & Information XPRESSly For Members |
Greetings!
Six organizations submitted proposals to run Memorial Health System. One has already withdrawn its offer. A process begun with the Memorial Citizens' Commission back in 2010 is reaching culmination. The Future of Memorial (and of the landscape of health care in Colorado Springs) is what we have for you in this issue. |
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EPCMS Looks At Memorial
A task force of EPCMS members was formed to make sure the citizens of Colorado Springs are well informed about what physicians recommend to keep our local health care delivery system healthy. This task force is not to be confused with the Memorial Task Force chartered by City Council, and tasked with evaluating the five proposals for leasing Memorial Health System from the city. The work of both of these groups will be completed by the end of December.
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The Future of Memorial
What's Happening Now
How We Got Here
The Citizen's Commission Report
Ballot measure 2b passed by a significant majority on November 1, 2011. This ballot measure eliminated taxpayers' risk exposure to Memorial and set the health system up for an eventual ownership/governance change. Those interested in leasing Memorial had until October 24 to tell the City of Colorado Springs whether they are interested, and until November 14 to submit a bid. Memorial and five other health systems or companies submitted bids to lease Memorial from the city, and these proposals were presented to the City Council Task Force on the Future of Memorial.
Follow Developments on the Memorial Health System Blog
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What's Happening Now
Health Systems Jockey for Control of Hospital
Read more...
Memorial and five other health systems or companies submitted bids to lease Memorial from the city. Proposals received were reviewed by the Memorial Task Force November 18, 2011, and the Task Force is now engaged in review and scoring of the proposals. The Task Force expects to select a winner by December 31, 2011. Their selection is likely to go to public vote during the first quarter of 2012.
The next big milestone is the December 7, 2011, public town hall meeting where the six bidders will present proposals and take comments from the public. Under the rules of this RFP (Request for Proposals) process, there is a quiet period for the next few weeks that restricts interested organizations from speaking about their proposals prior to this meeting.
The Task Force has agreed to abide by the Colorado Open Records and Meetings Acts, or Sunshine Laws. The group's decision came after a call for transparency by more than 1,200 docs, nurses, volunteers and others. The task force, composed of City Councilors, the mayor, businesspersons and health care personnel, is overseeing the bidding process for companies that may be interested in managing the health system. That process, known an RFP, could bring interested parties ranging from Memorial, as an independent nonprofit, to a for-profit corporation such as HCA to run Memorial on behalf of the city.
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How We Got Here
Memorial Hospital, now known as Memorial Health System, has been city-owned for more than sixty years, but it is not a traditional public hospital subsidized by taxpayers. Its own Board of Trustees governs the health system, which reports to the Colorado Springs City Council. As a city enterprise, it is financially independent, sustaining on patient revenues and reinvesting all profits locally. Memorial is the largest provider of care to the uninsured and underinsured, and its Emergency Department is the busiest in Colorado. Some other facts:
- Memorial Hospital for Children is southern Colorado's only designated children's hospital, providing the region's only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and its most advanced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
- Memorial Health System is the largest non-military provider of TriCare, the military's federal insurance plan, west of the Mississippi.
- Nearly $70 million in uncompensated care was provided in 2009.
- It offers a Level II trauma center.
For decades, some people have suggested that the city sell Memorial Health System; that a municipality should not be in the health care business and that there's a risk to taxpayers. In 2009, a city panel known as the Sustainable Funding Committee suggested that the City Council consider this question once again.
In response, the City Council appointed eleven community members to the Citizens' Commission on Ownership and Governance of Memorial Health System. Its charter states:
Through a process of community engagement, the Commission shall gather information solicit viewpoints and make recommendations concerning possible changes in Memorial Health System's ownership and/or governance to accomplish the following, equally-prioritized objectives:
- Minimize taxpayers' financial risk and legal exposure
- Maximize MHS's benefit to community, including high-quality care and economic/financial impact.
- Access to excellent health care designed and delivered around community needs.
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The Citizen's Commission Report
The Memorial Citizens' Commission presented its final report to Colorado Springs City Council on Monday, November 22, 2010.
Read more...
They recommended that the ownership and governance model of Memorial Health System be changed from city ownership and governance to ownership and governance by a newly-formed, independent not-for-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization with the following requirements:
- MHS shall commit to retaining its not-for-profit, tax-exempt status.
- MHS shall be required to maintain the charity care policy currently in effect and continue to provide a broad array of community benefits consistent with its charitable status and mission of service to the community
- A majority of the Board be comprised of citizens of Colorado Springs. The City might consider that, for a transition period of at least six years (two Board terms), a representative or designee of City Council serve on the Board.
- That the MHS President and Chair of the Board make an in-person, annual report to the Community,
- The City must approve the sale, merger, consolidation, change of membership, sale of substantially all of the assets or dissolution of MHS, and/or maintain a reversionary interest in the MHS assets such that should MHS ever be sold, otherwise transferred or dissolved that the City's historical ownership interest in the value of the assets would be maintained.
- As part of the mechanism to transfer ownership of MHS, the City and/or the Colorado Springs community receive remuneration from MHS in recognition of the City's stewardship of MHS. This payment can be structured as a lease of assets, payment in lieu of taxes, direct contribution to the City, contribution to a fund (charitable foundation) to advance the public health of the citizens of Colorado Springs (Commission's preference) or through some combination of the above.
The City Council evaluated these recommendations. After municipal elections, the Future of Memorial task Force was appointment to re-examine the issue. The next step was ballot measure 2B to pave the way for change. Ballot measure 2b passed on November 1, 2011, eliminating taxpayers' risk and setting the health system up for an eventual ownership/governance change. Although a tax has never been levied to support Memorial, under city ordinance such a tax was permissible to support Memorial Health System prior to this ballot measure passing.
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Have A Happy Thanksgiving!
EPCMS
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