09 August 2015 (04:04 UTC-07 Tango 01)/18 Mordad 1394/23 Shawwal 1436/25 Jia-Shen 4713
“…discretion has been exercised to favor the hospital where the physician was employed. After St. Luke’s purchased five specialty practices, ‘their business at Saint Alphonsus Boise dropped dramatically…the amount of business that they did at St. Luke’s facilities increased dramatically.'”– B. Lynn Winmill, U.S. District Judge
A lawsuit has revealed how desperate Boise, Idaho, area hospitals are, and could be a sign of things to come across the United States now that ObamaCare is ‘law’.
In order to justify treating people hospitals are intimidating patients into thinking they’ll get no treatment unless they use the respective hospital’s emergency room (ER) before being admitted. Specifically; ‘Christian’ run Saint Luke’s was sued, in part, for posting signs that read “Please use the Emergency Department at St. Luke’s in Boise or Meridian. St. Luke’s Internal Medicine doctors admit patients only to St. Luke’s facilities. Therefore, if your treatment requires hospitalization, we can manage your care more efficiently and effectively if you have received your emergency care at St. Luke’s.”
The word “only” was printed in bold by Saint Luke’s. The implication is that if you go to another hospital’s ER you might not be accepted at Saint Luke’s if you need to be transfered, or vice versa. News reports say Saint Luke’s also indicated that a person’s personal doctor might not be allowed to see them, and that once admitted to Saint Luke’s it would be almost impossible to get transfered elsewhere.
But this lawsuit was brought by competing ‘Christian’ run hospital Saint Alphonsus, and their complaints go back to 2010. They admit they began playing the Saint Luke’s game of forcing ER patients to be admitted to their hospital only, but it was because Saint Luke’s was playing hardball by buying-out most of the Boise area’s smaller healthcare operations. In other words a monopoly situation developed, which is exactly what healthcare analysts are warning is happening with hospitals and insurance companies across the U.S. under ObamaCare.
“…doctors who work for hospitals can be influenced to increase their referrals and hospital admissions, thus raising costs…”-Idaho Statesman
In 2012 the lack of competing hospitals in the Boise area got so bad that the state Attorney General actually warned Saint Luke’s not to take over Nampa’s Saltzer Medical Group (a huge doctors organization), but Saint Luke’s did it anyway.