HMA Ethics
Vash Lee
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11 February 2014 Health Management Associates Health Management Associates is a Naples-based for-profit hospital chain that owns 71 hospitals, 23 of which are in Florida (newspress). There have been many whistleblowers within the company that have brought allegations against HMA for focusing on the profits of the company over the proper medical attention of patients. In August 2013, the major shareholder of HMA, Glenview Capital Management LLC, with about 9.6% of stocks lead to the complete removal of the board of directors. There is currently a merger occurring in which HMA will go under another for-profit hospital chain company called Community Health Systems which will form the second largest for-profit hospital chain by revenue (nytimes). Glenview also pushed for this (fierce). The Department of Justice is backing many of those who have reported claims through qui tam cases. The CEO, Gary D. Newsome, left the company a few months ago to lead a mission trip, but is currently part of the cases as well. Several of the lawsuits point to Newsome as the inventor of the strategy used to raise admissions to emergency rooms (nytimes). The idea here is that the company gives incentives to the doctors to admit more patients to the emergency room to meet a quota. There are reports of the company using a software called Pro Med to keep scorecards for the doctors. The goal is to admit at least half of the patients over 65 that visit, the scorecards have the doctors highlighted in different colors: green for on target, yellow for those who were close, and red for doctors that were failing. Jacqueline Myers, a worker for the company that hires the doctors used by HMA, reported that she received the order to fire the doctors and red, but said no followed by being fired (nytimes). A CFO in a Georgia branch of HMA did a separate investigation of the admission rates and found them to be higher compared to other hospitals.
Professor -----
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11 February 2014 Health Management Associates Health Management Associates is a Naples-based for-profit hospital chain that owns 71 hospitals, 23 of which are in Florida (newspress). There have been many whistleblowers within the company that have brought allegations against HMA for focusing on the profits of the company over the proper medical attention of patients. In August 2013, the major shareholder of HMA, Glenview Capital Management LLC, with about 9.6% of stocks lead to the complete removal of the board of directors. There is currently a merger occurring in which HMA will go under another for-profit hospital chain company called Community Health Systems which will form the second largest for-profit hospital chain by revenue (nytimes). Glenview also pushed for this (fierce). The Department of Justice is backing many of those who have reported claims through qui tam cases. The CEO, Gary D. Newsome, left the company a few months ago to lead a mission trip, but is currently part of the cases as well. Several of the lawsuits point to Newsome as the inventor of the strategy used to raise admissions to emergency rooms (nytimes). The idea here is that the company gives incentives to the doctors to admit more patients to the emergency room to meet a quota. There are reports of the company using a software called Pro Med to keep scorecards for the doctors. The goal is to admit at least half of the patients over 65 that visit, the scorecards have the doctors highlighted in different colors: green for on target, yellow for those who were close, and red for doctors that were failing. Jacqueline Myers, a worker for the company that hires the doctors used by HMA, reported that she received the order to fire the doctors and red, but said no followed by being fired (nytimes). A CFO in a Georgia branch of HMA did a separate investigation of the admission rates and found them to be higher compared to other hospitals.