Archives: In The Media
ThedaCare’s potential merger part of trend
ThedaCare, a health system in Wisconsin, is considering consolidating its two largest hospitals. The potential merger would become the latest in a nationwide trend of merging health care operations. CHRT Director Marianne Udow-Phillips warns that using research on consolidation in the healthcare industry to predict effects on ThedaCare is the equivalent of comparing apples to oranges.
That’s because nearly all research on the consolidations in the health care industry focused on the merging of two health care companies, not the merging of two facilities within one company, as ThedaCare proposes.
It’s almost time for Michigan to start sharing Medicaid expansion costs
Starting in 2017, the State of Michigan will pay 5% of the Healthy Michigan Plan’s operating cost. Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed 2017 budget, which requires the state Legislature’s approval, included over $100 million for Healthy Michigan, the state’s Medicaid expansion program that provides health insurance for about 600,000 Michiganders.
Marianne Udow-Phillips, CHRT’s director, tells Michigan Radio she predicts the Legislature’s eventual approval “because the state is still getting savings from the general fund as a result of this federal contribution.”