Can you recall the last time you voted for members of the board of directors / trustees of Lancaster General Hospital? Can you even find who they are on LGH’s web site?
Yet as members of the community, we all pay a health care premium, either directly or through our insurers, to LGH due to its near monopoly position which enables it to be the third most profitable hospital in the state and to annually earn well over a hundred million dollars. LGH’s dominance of local health care generates higher healthcare prices, which is little different than a tax on those using its services.
NewsLanc has reported extensively on the finances of LGH and our research and interpretations have been tacitly confirmed. We do not object to LGH earning vast sums, even when at our expense. We do object to the secretive and self-serving ways that LGH spends its profits because we do not believe they are consistent with the best interests of the public—the owner and supposed beneficiary of this foundation—or consistent with its stated mission: “To advance the health and well-being of the communities we serve.” Note “well-being.”
According to the Sunday News lead article “LGH plows ahead on hospital near Ephrata” of September 6th “LGH spokesman John Lines says an outpatient center probably will be built first, then an inpatient hospital.”
Is a hospital complex in Ephrata indeed the best use of LGH profits? Are the downtown Lancaster hospital and the suburban Women’s Hospital at the suburban ‘campus’ overcrowded? Are there wiser and more economical methods for shortening or eliminating stays to make room for others? Are there ways to make use of capacities at Lancaster Regional and Heart of Lancaster?
As an example of what LGH could be doing with a tiny fraction of its surpluses: A half a million dollars a year in funding for an expanded Suboxone clinic would turn 500 drug addicts into productive members of the community and strengthen family ties. A one-time two million dollar contribution would enable the Lancaster Public Library to be totally renovated and a hundred thousand dollars a year would go far in sustaining and expanding the downtown library’s services. A quarter of a million a year would help put the Pennsylvania Academy of Music on a solid financial footing. A larger contribution to the City and School District of Lancaster would benefit everyone in the county, resulting in a more vibrant and healthy downtown and better educated inner-city youngsters.
But whether you agree with these causes or not, the real issue is: “Who is making the decision on how the public’s money—LGH’s profits—is being spent?”
We cannot even find the names of the directors or trustees on the LGH’s web site. We don’t know how they are appointed or elected.
But NewsLanc intends to find out. And it is time for the thinking public to recognize that what happens at LGH is as important to the community as what occurs a few blocks away at the County Office Building and City Hall.
“To advance the health and well-being of the communities we serve.”
That’s a joke. If it were true, LGH would build in areas where there are no nearby outpatient facilities or hospitals. If it were true, they wouldn’t build right outside Lancaster Regional or in Ephrata and they wouldn’t have shut down Columbia Hospital. LGH would love nothing better than to run everyone else out of business and give consumers no choice whatsoever
Where are you getting the idea that the public owns Lancaster General or that their revenues have anything to do with taxation?
Editor’s response: LGH is a public foundation, not a private business. Due to its market dominence, the public – largely through its insurance companies – pays a premium in rates generating huge profits. Rhetorically speaking, that premium is like a tax.