This economy's a real killer: Could Clark County's (Las Vegas) public hospital be forced to close?

[marmar]

via MichaelMoore.com:



April 6th, 2009 1:06 am
State measure could force closure of UMC, county says

By Joe Schoenmann / Las Vegas Sun


A state Senate bill that would gut University Medical Center's reimbursement for providing hospital care to poor people could force the county's only publicly funded hospital to close, Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid said Tuesday morning.

But Charles Duarte, administrator for Nevada Medicaid, said Tuesday afternoon that the bill's intention is to bring the state in compliance with federal law and to instigate discussion about indigent reimbursements, a "very contentious" issue for publicly funded UMC and private hospitals.

"We are working with Clark County to amend the bill in a manner that doesn't harm UMC and the county to any great degree but at the same time contributes to hospitals that have been uncompensated," Duarte said.

The state is violating federal rules, he added, by failing to reimburse some hospitals that provide care to the indigent.

The bill, SB 382, was characterized much differently to a special meeting of the Clark County Commission Tuesday morning, held as a budget primer as the county starts to figure out how it will pay for 2009-10. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=13682

[BlooInBloo]

1. My best friend in Vegas told me they closed their oncology dept...

And in related news: they have so many kids in the schools who are homeless or near-homeless that the schools give out small bags of food to the kids on Fridays - just to get them through the weekend.

:(

[virgogal]

2. God almighty,what a world.

[Fumesucker]

3. What a country!

/Yakov Smirnoff