![]() ![]() ![]() Policymakers need to revisit their tax-exempt status and rein in their behavior. Appelbaum said, "We shouldn't be subsidizing financial actors who make outsized profits at the expense of patients and workers. "However, their actions are anything but that-their aggressive actions and costly rents undermine the ability of health care providers to survive and serve patient needs, according to Batt. REITs control over $3.5 trillion in assets in the U.S., but pay no taxes because the law defines them as passive investors. Even so, the Steward system was deeply in the red-the worst financial performer of all hospitals in Massachusetts in 2019-before the pandemic hit." To pay the rent on prime city properties, the private equity owners required deep cuts in staffing, supplies and equipment. "The hospitals were suddenly paying inflated rents on property they had owned for over 100 years. But the hospitals were left in shambles." As soon as the attorney general's oversight expired, Cerberus sold the hospital property for $1.25 billion to a health care REIT, Medical Properties Trust. The Massachusetts attorney general oversaw the conversion of the hospitals from non-profit to for-profit status, and monitored Cerberus' compliance with requirements for charity care and investment for five years. Cerberus Capital, a private equity firm, bought six Catholic hospitals in the Boston area in 2011. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts brings health insurance plans, medical claims, insurance coverage, benefits and telehealth via MyBlue Web & App. Cook Professor of Women and Work, provides an example: "Take the Steward Health Care System. Sale-leasebacks provide quick returns for private equity firms and stable long-term returns for the REITs.īatt, the ILR School's Alice H. Shetty, Steward Health Care is committed to offering employment to all hospital employees in good standing when the transaction is complete, with privileges continuing for all physicians in good standing on the medical staff. The REITs buy the real estate and lease it back to hospitals or nursing homes in long-term leases that typically increase at 3% annually. Steward’s operations will be directed by Sanjay Shetty, MD, president of Steward North America. Private equity firms buy out health care providers, load them with debt and plan to exit them in a four- to five-year window. Their tactic is known as a sale-leaseback. The perpetrators, the researchers say, are private equity firms in partnership with "real estate investment trusts," known as "REITs." Both are Wall Street investment funds that most people have never heard of, but that have increasingly penetrated the health care industry. 1 by the Institute for New Economic Thinking and the Center for Economic and Policy Research. In their new study, Batt and Appelbaum describe how investors are undermining the financial stability of hospitals and nursing homes by selling off their real estate and pocketing the proceeds for themselves, rather than reinvesting the money to improve patient care. Physical therapy services for teens and adults were expanded to the Cortland community with the opening of Elm Road Rehabilitation Services.These findings are documented in research by ILR Professor Rosemary Batt and Eileen Appelbaum, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Megan Teeples, a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Warren now offers expanded services in the outpatient clinic, including nerve conduction studies, EMGs and Botox injections for chronic migraines and spasticity. The hospital was awarded the platinum performance achievement award chest pain-myocardial infarction registry through the American College of Cardiology. Sharon Regional Medical Center achieved reaccreditation as a primary stroke center through the Joint Commission, chest pain accreditation through the American College of Cardiology, and laboratory accreditation through the College of American Pathologists. And Trumbull Regional invested in new technology in its cath lab, allowing for treatment of higher acuity patients. The hospital’s Level III Trauma Center was recertified by the Verification Review Committee. ![]()
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