Hospital CEOs Rewarded for Volume, Not Improved Care

June 25, 2013 | Crandall & Pera Law
Hospital CEOs Rewarded for Volume, Not Improved Care

Hospital CEOs throughout the U.S. continue to be awarded bonuses for driving the kind of profits and expansion many say are no longer affordable for patients, employers and taxpayers, according to a recent ABC News article. 

Across the nation, boards at nonprofit hospitals are often paying bosses in part for financial and expansion goals - such as patient volume increases at primary and specialty care clinics and growth in urgent-care center visits - rather than delivering value, undermining reform measures in the 2010 health law that aim to cut unnecessary treatment and control costs.

"Boards of trustees in health care are oriented around top-line, revenue goals," said Dr. Donald Berwick, a longtime reform advocate who ran Medicare and Medicaid for President Obama. "They celebrate the CEO when the hospital is full instead of rewarding business models that improve patients' care."

U.S. hospitals spend twice as much per discharged patient as hospitals in other developed nations without delivering much better results, according to the Commonwealth Fund, with thirty percent of U.S. health care costs deemed unnecessary. Read the full details here:

Hospital CEO Bonuses Reward Volume and Growth 

This investigation reveals what has become abundantly obvious in the healthcare industry: hospitals are businesses driven by a desire to increase profit margins, rather than centers driven by a desire to provide quality health care. As such, hospitals should be treated no differently than an automaker who cuts corners to increase profits and sells a defective car that causes needless deaths.

If you have been injured due to medical malpractice please call to investigate your matter fully. Crandall & Pera Law is available to help answer your questions and guide you in determining your next steps.