Question 1:
The board and the executive leadership team of Northwestern memorial hospital should respond to the finding of the Illinois court case as discussed hereunder:
Provena Covenant Medical Center “relies on private physicians to fill its medical staff.” This is through utilizing numerous third party providers in order to deliver other services at the hospital. These include but are not limited to lab, laundry, pharmacy, MRI/CT services. Despite this being a non-profit motivated institution, some of the services were provided for a fee/profit under disguise. Therefore the executive leadership and the board of Northwestern memorial hospital should bind itself with its mantra and clarion call of delivering its services without any deviations whatsoever. It should also review salaries of its employees and give them attractive packages so that they are not tempted to levy charges for some of the services. This will make its workers work “even more gratuitously” without painting a grim picture of the image of the hospital. Uninsured patients were also found to billed for the services at full “established” rates. This sounds discriminative. Those who access services at the hospital have varying levels of income. The North western memorial hospital should listen and care to its patients with an equal attention. As part of its social responsibility activities, it should encourage people to subscribe to insurance plans or subsidize for them the rates under certain considerations. (Provena Supreme Court case, March 18, 2010).
Question 2:
What specific plans should your hospital put forth to mitigate the risk of being taxed at the federal, state and municipal level given this holding?
Question 3:
Based upon Illinois Risk Factor Surveillance System (http://app.idph.state.il.us/brfss/default.asp), given the health state of the county in which your hospital is based, how will this impact the ability of your hospital to demonstrate a community benefit?
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a program based in each of the states in the US collects information on the risk factors particularly among adults of 18 years and above. This is through a monthly survey conducted via the telephone. Since its establishment in 1984, it has increasingly grown in specter as the focal point of vital information on conditions and behaviors that are related to some of the major causes of death among the adult population. This can impact positively on the commitment of Northwestern memorial hospital to demonstrate community benefit since all the information about that community can easily be accessed from the system. (Charity care in Illinois, Historical and legal context).
Question 4:
Based upon health statistics in your county (http://app.idph.state.il.us/health/statshome.htm), how will this impact the ability of your hospital to demonstrate a community benefit?
Based on the health statistics, the members of the team will be able to plan well and lay down better health service strategies that will enable them to be able to deal with their clientele groups in the best way possible through an efficient and effective program that is highly sensitive to their needs and aspirations. For the members of the community to fully benefit from the health programme, all their needs must be taken into cognizance. The statistics will therefore provide “the basis for an informed decision making strategy” that will see them fully benefit from the programme. (Non-profit hospitals and community benefit, Davis, 2011).
Question 5:
How should your hospital adjust its payor mix realizing that in 2014, Illinois is anticipated to launch its State Health Insurance Exchange?
As the much anticipated Illinois State Health Insurance Exchange draws to a close in 2014, Northwestern memorial hospital will have to redraft its payor mix. This can, for instance be by reviewing the compatibilities and the incompatibilities that exist between policy governing its practice and the State Health Insurance Exchange. It can therefore redraft its payor mix going by what is stipulated in the insurance exchange and harmonize any issue that is likely to bring about conflict. . (Putting the community back in community benefit, proposed state tax exemption standard for nonprofit Hospitals).
Question 6:
If US Supreme Court decides that individual mandate is unconstitutional, how would it impact your hospital?
The decision by the US Supreme court that individual mandate is unconstitutional would impact negatively to Northwestern memorial hospital.
This is true because it will force the American populations to arrive at a point where they will choose to do without any health insurance in place since unconstitutionalizing individual mandate is being insensitive to the current dynamics in the economy. It has sparked a lot of controversy owing to the fact that Americans will have to succumb to a situation whereby they cannot subscribe to any insurance plan to access services in Medicare and Medicaid hence they end up paying through the nose.
This will make accessing health care an expensive undertaking for the Americans as it does not “put back community benefit”. Philosophically, it interferes with the inalienable right of the populace to access social amenities without any fear. This is also widely viewed as a ploy by governments at local, state and federal levels to abscond from their core duty of raising funds that are necessary in effectively subsidizing the costs for those who cannot afford to pay insurance. (Nonprofit hospital tax exemption suffers yet another blow in Illinois).
