Curious...

This article states:

OHSU has been beset by critical financial troubles in the last two years. According to hospital officials, its operating margin has declined from a high of 6 percent in 2006 to about 2 percent through 2008 and the start of 2009, which means the institution still runs in the black.

Now, isn't that at odds with what the executives told the public when they got their multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars 'incentive bonuses'. If, over the past two years, it's operating margin has been reduced to about 1/3 of what it was two years ago, why were bonuses awarded way above and beyond the target bonuses?

I think Attorney General John Kroger could make valuable use of his time looking into the OHSU situation. Questions include the above and the whole tram affair....it certain smells of cronyism and fraud.

I left a trail at the end of the post "What recession? OHSU is hiring" (Thursday, January 29, 2009) for anyone who wants to investigate to follow. It's not just about humongous bonuses. It might also involve public employees busy feathering their own nests.

If I can convince someone to make a tax deductible gift direct to OHSU Dental School on my behalf then I could get the root canal that I need. It is only occasionally quite painful. A cool grand would do fine, including a cap. Miscellaneous fillings would only cost 400 more.

I have only had one official cleaning prior to this in the last 25 years, so this is not too bad.

Do not underestimate the importance of the coupling of medical coverage to any government job, wherein the price that is charged becomes a non-issue. Private grunts earning below the median wage cannot typically pay, and do without, because of the cost. Care that is not delivered and not billed is surely higher than the level of care represented by the care delivered but unpaid.

As always, increasing the supply of providers is a necessary but not necessarily sufficient means for lowering the cost of care for all. I would like to see a chart of the output over time of newly trained care providers.

I think I see a pattern emerging. A few weeks back the president of Willamette University had an op-ed in the Oregonian. As I recall in it he pointed out that private schools in Oregon did a better job of educating low income students than did the government run system. Now we seem to have private hospitals doing a better job of helping low income patients than a quasi-government facility.

This is the statement from OHSU's Brad King:

[T]he hospital has increased its number of paying patients, which lowers the uncompensated care percentage.

This is from a comment on this blog regarding Jordaan Clark:

That's right, according to briefs in the case OHSU has filed over $200,000 in liens against the family for unpaid medical bills. So they not only admit their negligence, they bill and pursue collection for the services that caused the damages to boot.

Actually a new topic that you may want to go with.
Intersting note on the new ERP (SAP) system for the city. To me the scariest part is the tripling of the cost. A very good marker. This may make The water bureau fiasco and the tram look like small potatoes.

http://www.panorama-consulting.com/WhitePapers/Shane_Co_ERP_Lessons_Learned_01-29-09.pdf

pdxmick - Are you trying to change the subject? Why?