This piece is a pitifully contrived shot to discredit Health reform efforts of the US Government. The good sisters see that they do not and will not have the resources to continue their healthcare activities. Period. NCR can hopefully do better work than this or you will be a seller as well. God bless us all.

Raymond,
The Sisters of Mercy and Mercy Healthcare itself admits, in the linked article, that the Health Care Reform Bill was one of the key reasons for their sale.

Regrettably, the article does not convey what your comments do; and as such, the reader is left with the unconnected dots asserted in the title.  What was needed was the narrative of the why specifically, the sale has become necessary, what about the pending changes in the healthcare system will require that this hospital be sold.

I’m surprised by Sherry and Raymond’s comments. The article linked makes it quite clear that while the Hospitals are doing well, the future is bleak because of Obamacare. The mandates and regulations found in the new President’s health care law would require “a different level of investment.” They made it clear that while Obamacare wasn’t the only decision, it played a critical role. “Health care reform is absolutely playing a role. Was it the precipitating factor in this decision? No, but was it a factor in our planning over the next five years? Absolutely,” Cook said. So, what’s the dispute about?

Linked article or not, 267 words don’t seem to do justice to the claim made in the title of the post. I was expecting a bit more when I clicked in.

-Tim-

Another unmentioned consequence of Obamacare for Catholic hospitals is that there are no conscience protections in the bill.

Catholic hospitals may face the possibility of being pressured by the Federal government to provide abortions under Obamacare.

This is enough to discredit the presumed altruism of Obamacare for me.

I wonder if the sisters that founded the hospital back in 1917 were as concerned about their bottom line as the sisters currently are… Sisters back then opened hospitals to serve the poor… now they close them to avoid serving the poor. Odd how life has its twists and turns…

Wake up people.  Doctors and insurance companies, (the two entities that we depend on for our healthcare), are at war to ensure their respective enormous salaries/quarterly bonuses. And that’s the bottom line.. profit.  Not our healthcare.

I am not at home with the clause that suggests coercion in the deal. I thought the US is all about freedom and rights. Is this a new form of pseudo-communism? I need to understand.

“They said much of that required investment is the result of the health care reform bill passed in Washington.”

Enough said.

We have the best healthcare system in the world. Costs are high but a lot of that is due to the fact that we have the latest high tech equipment. I know people who b***h about a $30 dollar prescription but don’t have a problem paying $6.00 for a pack of cigarettes or $3.50 for a beer. It’s all about priorities. Those who wish for a government run system either haven’t done their homework or are easily fooled by the politicians. I don’t see people flocking to other countries for healthcare. But when Obam,acare is in full swing you will see that. Anyone with money will go elsewhere for the specialized treatments. The ‘little people’ who the Democrats say they care about will be stuck with a system of long waits, less doctors and reduced choices.

It sure is not right to have to give up our Catholic hospitals.

With any luck, the buyer will be another Catholic health-care system.

That said, I’ve enjoyed reading comments by those who, unable to dispute the facts, decide to hurl insults. As if the Mercy Sisters don’t take care of the poor!

I would not be suprised if all Catholic hospitals get wiped off the map because of Obamacare. Actually I would not be suprised if a lot of people get wiped off the face of the earth because of Obamacare. There will be rationing no matter how they try to sugar coat it. There’s rationing of healthcare now in America. If your insurance won’t pay for it either you don’t find out about your options or you can’t afford those options. Hospitals will limit care given to patients because Medicare/Medicaid won’t reimburse them enough. What we have is flawed but socialized healthcare is so much worse. If you don’t believe me ask my friend’s Father. Oh, that’s right you can’t because Canada’s socialized medicine made him wait for heart bypass surgery and he died.

What good sisters? The Sisters of Mercy have not been in effective control of any Mercy facility in NE PA for at least twenty years. “The Good Sisters” on the staff at Mercy Scranton number about 3, and are in pastoral or minor administrative positions. Mercy was sold to a hospital conglomerate some considerable time ago and has been profit-driven ever since as I know from frequent conversations with dedicated health-care professionals on the staff. Mercy observes the no-abortion rule and provides a chapel, but other than that it’s about as Catholic as Cedars-Sinai. Probably less charitable. It’s the bottom line, baby. If Obamacare is indeed the cause of the closing it’s not from any moral issue but because this hospital system is simply not profitable.

I am Canadian and I will be the first to say that our systems (plural because each province has its own system)are not perfect… but no health care system is perfect. What I can’t understand though is why anyone would not applaud the fact that what we are trying to do and have been doing for quite awhile is provide the same quality health care to each individual regardless of economic status. Our homeless can receive treatment for cancer, our unemployed don’t stay up at night fearing that their children will become sick and won’t have access to basic health care. These are good things people! Why this insitence on heath care being a priviledge of the well to do and not a right in a nation that has more than enough means to provide it.
I have had enough of the justification of the injustice of the American system by pointing to certain imperfections in the Canadian systems. Should we also criticize the Missionaries of Charity for their lack of technology in their clinics. They charge nothing and turn no one away… but can’t provide bypass surgery either… Health care in Canada is honourable and just and should be celebrated by all Catholics. “Cafeteria Catholicism” is alive and well in fiscally conservative Catholic circles…

Having grown up in Scranton, and having been in Mercy Hospital most recently this summer with my grandmother, I have to agree with Mary E. Williams.

All one has to do is walk through the waiting room, or through the hospital itself, to know that it’s not exactly prospering. Also, though I’d hesitate to take it as a standard for the whole hospital, my grandmother did not receive the most quality care while there.

So I’m not surprised that increased need for investment or funding or whatever is a factor in wanting to sell it. If you’re in the hospital itself, you can tell.

Folks, here’s the story pure and simple: “much of the required investment is the result of the Health Care Reform Bill, which will require greater spending AND LESS FEDERAL REIMBURSEMENT.”  Did you see that, “less federal reimbursement?”  If you have to pay $200 a day to work someplace but only get paid $40 for your work, are you going to continue working there? If you run a business and it cost you $200 to provide mandatory services but only get reimbursed $40 for your services, are you going to be able to stay in business? 

That is what governments meddling in healthcare has done.  State legislatures mandate that health providers have to provide certain services that the state will pay for.  But it cost the health care provider a lot more money to give that service than the state will pay.  So, the health care provider shifts their loss on to those who can pay for it which has turned out to be people with insurance.  So, insurance companies are paying a lot more money for their insured customers’ treatments than necessary, way above what the appropriate charge would have been.  The health care provider has to make up for the losses they are incurring as a result of the governments refusal to pay their fair share of the cost to provide the mandated treatments.

This has been going on for the past 35-40 years.  That is why your health insurance cost over the years have been going up.  The insurance companies finally started getting wise to what the health providers were doing and started to put a maximum on what they would pay for certain insurance claims.  They had to do that or continue raising your insurance rates.  That resulted in you having to start paying a co-payments. 

The whole cost of health care has really been driven by government meddling in the health field, more so than anything else the past 40 years.  That increase cost also includes the expense doctors and health providers have to pay for liability insurance to protect themselves against lawyers suing them for malpractice.  Because legislators are lawyers best friends, and vice versa, there is no legislative limits in most states on malpractice lawsuits.

Come Catholics, wake up, you all know this – you just forgot.

Oh, one more thing.  Legislatures also write laws mandating insurance companies provide insurance to cover certain types of medical care, usually very expensive treatments, in all their policies.  That also runs up the cost to provide insurance which they have to pass on to you, their customers.  So your cost for health insurance also increases because of state legislative mandates.

Does this health system hold membership in the Catholic Health Association?  The reason I ask is because this is what Sr. Carol Keehan’s (D.C.) vaunted betrayal of the bishops and Catholic moral teaching is getting many Catholic, and other, nonprofit hospitals. 
If the Sisters of Mercy supported Sr. Carol and the CHA - well, you got that for which you asked. 
If the Sisters of Mercy did not support the CHA betrayal - then you have been victimized by an agency supposedly supporting Catholic health care in this country.

The Sisters are folding too soon.  They should wait to see the outcome of the upcoming elections.  Perhaps rather than closing completely they could simple open up a clinic for the poor-which unfortunately more and more of us may soon be!  Hopefully if the sale does go thru the new owners will have to change the name of the hospital so that no one will be confused into thinking it is still a Catholic Hospital.

And what if (please God), the health care is repealed.  They’re out of business, too late.

They should wait at least until November and let the pro-life Republicans (and the couple of Democrats) rectify the bill before the hospitals take drastic action.

Le président-directeur général de la Santé, Kevin Cook à dit;

“For more than two decades area hospitals have endured lower than average reimbursements for care and a static population base. This has, at times, resulted in empty hospital beds and the duplication of services.

TWO DECADES ! ! ! not TWO YEARS

Once upon a time hospitals were opened as a charitable outreach.  Religious orders started them to serve the community.  They cared for people no matter their religion, but they also prayed with them and shared the faith.  People donated money to them because they were a great benefit to the community.  They ran on divine providence.  Then, most Catholic hospitals bent to secular pressure and went the for profit route.  In most cases, the Catholicism of the hospitals pretty much went away when the board of directors took over.  Now, if there was a sister involved, they had a CEO type role, or they just happened to work there in “pastoral” care.  Catholic morals ceased to be factor in most of what was done, from the billing department to the hiring of staff to emergency rape procedures that include the morning after pill.  Most hospitals have long since abandoned Catholicism. These sisters are just admitting that their hospital was a business run to support themselves and, as with many businesses these days, when the money stops rolling in you sell the business.

Blake Helgoth, I think your summary of Catholic hospitals has some truth to it but you have left out a major development in health care that is really behind the closing or selling of these hospital and others - governments increased control in the hospital industry.  I explained it in my above posted comment.  The government is the major factor of health care and health insurance cost soaring.  Basically, government mandates care to be given but doesn’t even come close to paying just the basic cost to the hospitals to break even on the services they have to provide.  The cost shifting to the insurance companies due to governments’ gross underpayment of mandated services over the years is what has been going on.  Under the Democrats new dictated healthcare laws even more will be demanded of health care and insurance providers in which even less will be paid by the government.  The results will be the take over of health care providers and health care insurance by the government when those industries can’t earn enough money to pay their bills.  All of this is occurring in the name of those words that so many Catholics are so enamored by - “social justice.”  Ultimately, the peddlers of “social justice” will find out what happens when government wrestles away from those two industries the freedoms that enabled them to be built in the first place.  And they are not going to like it, but by then it will be toooooo late.  Thanks, Catholics, I should say, Catholic Democrats, for giving us the ungodly government we now have.

Single-payer, goverment-run health care is the only viable answer to our unmanageable system. Free-market medicine has been proven to work only for those rich enough to afford it, and that population is becoming smaller.

“Single-payer, goverment-run health care is the only viable answer to our unmanageable system.”  Jim, you must be blind.  There are a lot of ways out of the government mandated health care and health insurance system that government stuck its nose into big time starting forty years ago.  To turn it all over to government now is insane since government is the one that has made the problems that some people like to complain about, including the cost of it.  Read my post above if you want to understand how we got to where we are right now.  The only way out of it is to get government out of health care and the health insurance business and let the free market take over.  That way the Church will be able to fulfill its duties to carrying for the sick as Jesus taught, while getting good health care.  And the rest of us will be able to afford the insurance to take care of ourselves and family.

You paint an incredibly saintly picture of both the insurance companies and the health care providers as if they were some charitable non-profit organizations seeking to provide the lowest costs for patients all the while being persecuted by the evil government. As far as I know, both of these entities have made a decent profit off of how the system has worked… I have no sympathy for their supposed “hardships”

The theory that the government’s intervention is the CAUSE of the increase in the cost of health care ignores the vast change in the QUALITY of health care since the diagnostic revolution that took place in the ‘60s. In the 1950s, Mercy Scranton routinely took elderly/chronic patients from well-to-do families for weekend or week-long “respite"visits - though they didn’t call them that - knowing that the cost of care would be absorbed by the fact that a) most of the work would be done by unpaid sisters who had dedicated their lives to Christ’s poor; b) most of the balance of the work would be done by nurses, many of whom chose their profession because it required a much less expensive education and were consequently resigned to a lower level of pay, and c) grateful families would make large donations in addition to the minimal payments required. Try suggesting to today’s holder of a BS or MS in nursing that she pass bedpans at $6 an hour, or to today’s internist, who has a six-figure education, that he refrain from charging a for a hospital visit to a patient who pays income tax on a six figure income. Sixty years of advances in medicine have to be paid for somehow. Do you want to pay full price for your heart surgery? Without insurance your alternative is death. If you can’t afford insurance, die, sucker; you should have worked hard enough to merit compassion from fiscal conservatives.

How is it that some of you assign saintly behavior and intentions to the people in government who through the power of government confiscate people’s money through taxes, then make laws for certain professions, like health care, mandating that they provide specific care for the general public which the government will pay for at prices far below what it cost the health professionals to provide it?  While on the other hand, you attribute greedy intentions to those in the healthcare professions who get the expertise and capital to open facilities to care for people who voluntarily come to them of their own free will and either pay with cash or insurance for their services. 

Why is it that you think people in government are good, decent human beings, and those in the private sector are selfish and greedy?

“Do you want to pay full price for your heart surgery? Without insurance your alternative is death. If you can’t afford insurance, die, sucker; you should have worked hard enough to merit compassion from fiscal conservatives.” Mary Elizabeth Williams, your last sentance doesn’t make sense.  What does “fiscal conservatives” have to do with anything you said?

The good sisters have an ethical duty to sell the business if they expect to run at a deficit and someone else can run it better. I think Catholic hospitals got started because no one else was providing medical care for underserved areas, but I don’t think this country has that problem anymore. Maybe God’s will is guiding them into another way to serve the church.

I was commenting on the previous entries from people who seem to be fiscally conservative who fail to realize that the free-market system they look back on with fond nostalgia was in fact fueled by the kind of self-sacrifice and charity which no longer operates in the health-care market. The truth is that the truly poor can only look to government, whether federal, state or city, for their health care because its actual costs have grown well beyond the ability of most ordinary working people to afford, and concomitantly, the premiums of health insurance that make health care affordable have escalated far beyond the reach of the truly poor. Jeff’s comment about Catholic hospitals is right on target. Hospitals actually grew out of the care provided by monasteries when there were no schools, no hospitals, and no government. Catholic healthcare has always been directed toward those who have no fiscal resources. That role has now been pre-empted by the government. In addition, the orders founded to serve this sector of Christian sacrifice have suffered drastic declines in vocations. The work of Mother Teresa’s order is a stark contrast to the conditions in most American hospitals and communities, and are much closer to conditions the Sisters of Mercy were founded to address, and for the most part, no longer encounter in their work. Perhaps “another way to serve the Church” would enable them to remain in existence as well as provide some really needed assistance to those below the poverty line. The social safety net still has a number of holes in it.

“Why is it that you think people in government are good, decent human beings, and those in the private sector are selfish and greedy?”
Experience, dear. Experience.

Elizabeth, please share some of that “experience.”

Wow. This is the sort of piece journalism students should use when learning how to identify articles that don’t really abide by journalistic standards.

Wellll… how about a doctor who refuses to visit his patient in a hospital because of an unpaid bill? How about an intern who switches his specialty to cosmetic surgery “for the money, baby.” How about a vascular surgeon who reschedules an operation so he can attend a real estate brokers’ convention (he is heavily invested in real estate?) How about many, many doctors who open testing/clinical service offices so that they can control the prices, and hence the profits from, their patients’ procedures? I can remember, when I was about 15, my family doctor, who was everyone’s ideal family practitioner, being absolutely scathing about doctors who cared more about new cars and big houses than about their patients - and he knew them as colleagues; and I haven’t seen any moral revolution among medical practitioners since. Medicine is big business and many, many who enter it do so for less than humanitarian motives. Granted, the profession is graced with many exemplary and loving members who are shining examples of Christian charity. So is banking. So are the Armed Forces. But the health care industry is profit-driven and you cannot expect it to act differently from any other market force.

I take strong exception to the negative comments about Mercy Hospital in Scranton. It is the finest hospital in the region and remains faithful to its Catholic mission. The heart staff at Mercy saved my life earlier this year when I required triple bypass surgery and their excellent cardiac rehab staff brought me back to health. If they say this outrageous government takeover of the world’s greatest health care system is forcing them to sell, I believe them.By the way, there are no abortions performed in any Scranton Hospitals and we have NO abortion clinics. The people here wouldn’t stand for it. It is my fervent hope that the November election will precipitate the repeal of Obamacare after we oust the socialist liberals who created this obamination.

“Actually we’re doing well,” added Kevin Cook, CEO of Mercy Health Partners. “We’re ahead of budget for the year. It’s more that when we look out over the landscape of health care over the next five years and the needs of these facilities, the needs of this community, we understand a different level of investment will be needed than what we can do on our own.”

That comment disturbs me because it shows a lack of imagination and intiative on the part of the hospital’s operators. You mean to tell me that neither the Sisters of Mercy nor the board members can try to create partnerships in the community that would keep the hospital open? I realize fund raising is difficult at this time but that shouldn’t prevent the operators from trying new methods to earn money and keep the hospital open, Obamacare or no. Even if Obamacare didn’t pass (and I don’t support it), I assume this hospital would have closed, anyway, just later in time. That speaks more to the operators than to government, ultimately.

Almost no one takes issue with the quality of care at Mercy; it is regularly listed among the top heart-care hospitals in the country. The point is, it is NOT RUN BY THE SISTERS OF MERCY and should not be regarded as a Catholic charity. It is run by a corporation whose business methods reflect, understandably, a primary concern with the bottom line. Mercy does not solicit donations; does not run fundraisers; and, in theory at least, does not offer free care to those unable to pay. In practice, it does do so, mainly because it does not succeed in obtaining Medicaid or insurance payments sought for care provided which does not meet the payers’ requirements,but the result is that its budgets are unrealistic. Hence its forecast of long-range problems.

Tim,

You might want to read this and consider offering an update to your post here. Perhaps you jumped the gun and bit at the “fear” bait too quickly.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/health-reform-can-t-cure-bald-faced-lies-1.1048321

Regarding Jim’s post: The Times-Tribune is run by the third generation of a Catholic family who have been pillars of the community AND the diocese all through their operation. They are generally unbiassed and thorough in their reporting of local issues, but they are equally unbiassed in their assessment of local problems and although there is a good deal more to be said, their analysis of the source of Mercy’s problems is quite accurate.

The newspaper editorial linked above certainly does shine a new light on all this.

With all due respect to Ms. Williams, the Times-Tribune can hardly be called an unbiased newspaper. They drove their competition out of business and have been a one-family newspaper monopoly for many years. Their reporting is soft and their barn is full of sacred cows they will not expose to hard journalistic scrutiny. Their editorial bias is well known to everyone in the region as it heavily favors the democratic party and its liberal agenda.Investigative journalism designed to ferret out political corruption does not exist at this paper. They will report the stories only when authorities have done the investigating.

Funny how you add the American Spectator link, as if that somehow lends credibility to your misguided essay here. Have you even noticed how much backlash these faulty claims are getting? It’s OK to choose sides, but don’t sacrifice the truth just to score a point. It will backfire on you.

What a crock…If MHP was planning on selling before Obamacare was signed, why would they BUY Tyler Memorial only to sell it a couple of years later???
The cat is out of the bag and now everyone is trying to get the truth hidden.

Obamacare comes in, and 3 Catholic Hospitals must go up for sale.

Obamacare forcing the sale of a hospital open since 1917.

No doubt this is only the beginning of the CHANGE to come——being shoved down your throats.

This story, or at least the way you are presenting it, has been completely discredited, even in right-leaning outlets who had originally pursued the same angle as you. It’s rather irresponsible to just leave this up. Someone might stumble upon it and not get any other info about this story. That would be unfortunate.

Traduction (français > anglais)
Here’s a guy to back off, you know that you are trying to pass off as a !@#$%.
More propaganda is primitive, the more effective it is. Here you meet the head of a fact which runs for 20 years two decades, not since he is president that is to say two years. It is the hospital director who is asserted. See comment above or at least read and try to understand.Traduction (français > anglais)
Here’s a guy to back off, you know that you are trying to pass off as a !@#$%.
More propaganda is primitive, the more effective it is. Here you meet the head of a fact which runs for 20 years two decades, not since he is president that is to say two years. It is the hospital director who is asserted. See comment above or at least read and try to understand.
This hospital was not competitive under the 8-year reign of Bush and do not be no more today ‘hui under Obama.
Relatively easy to put the blame on someone you hate.

This hospital was not competitive under the 8-year reign of Bush and do not be no more today ‘hui under Obama.
Relatively easy to put the blame on someone you hate.

Voici un gars qui à le dos large, vous savez celui que vous essayez de faire passer pour un salaud.
Plus une propagande est primitive, plus elle est efficace. Voila que vous le rendez responsable d’ un fait qui se déroule depuis 20 ans deux décennie et non pas depuis qu’ il est président c’ est à dire deux ans . c’ est le directeur de l’hôpital qui l’ affirme . Voir commentaire plus haut ou du au moins le lire et essayer de le comprendre.
Cette hôpital n’ était pas compétitif sous les 8 années du règne de Bush et ne l’ est pas plus aujourd’hui’ hui sous Obama.
Relativement facile de mettre la faute sur quelqu’un qu’on aime pas.

James - where is your evidence this article “has been completely discredited, even in right-leaning outlets who had originally pursued the same angle as you.”

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