Business
Report details Calif. ED crisis
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 18, 2004
Financial losses in emergency departments at hospitals across California surged to $635 million in fiscal 2002, underscoring the worsening conditions that have forced scores of hospital to close in recent years, according to a new report by the California Medical Assn.
In an annual survey released Sept. 21, the CMA said hospital emergency department losses reached $460 million while losses to physicians in those EDs totaled more than $175 million. Combined, the figures were an 18% increase from the $540 million in losses reported a year earlier.
The report said hospitals are suffering from declining reimbursements from government and private payers and from the large volume of uncompensated care delivered to some of California's 7 million uninsured residents.
Meanwhile, the CMA said more than 65 emergency departments had closed statewide in the last decade, including 28 since Jan. 1, 2000.
Also in September, Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in the Los Angeles area announced that it would close by the end of the year, citing financial woes, the CMA said. The medical association said it marked the eighth California emergency department to announce its closure this year.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/10/18/bibf1018.htm.
