Y’all know how I feel about Government picking winners and losers. It should butt out. And if a company has placed itself in the loser category by mismanagement (with my only caveat being it is vital to a military or Constitutional mandate), let it BE a loser and disappear into History’s dust bin.
Capitalism can mean much success with risk rewarded handsomely. The converse, however, must also hold true – that risk can also result in a complete wipeout. NO industry should be immune from this truism and the NH Government should be hands-off as it is part and parcel in creating the problem in the first place (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Littleton Regional says it would lose $3.2 million a year if ConvenientMD opens
NORTH HAVERHILL — Littleton Regional Healthcare is asking a judge to block the state from granting a license to ConvenientMD Urgent Care, saying the walk-in center would cause the hospital to lose $3.2 million a year. ConvenientMD plans to open at 551 Meadow St. just off Interstate 93 Exit 42 and about a half-mile southwest of downtown Littleton. On July 23, Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers determined the facility “will not result in a material adverse impact” to Littleton Regional Healthcare.
Portsmouth-based ConvenientMD operates more than two dozen urgent care centers in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts.
Last spring, the hospital system opened its own walk-in center — Littleton Urgent Care at Littleton Regional Healthcare.
And WHY would Littleton Regional be losing money? Its business model can’t compete with a smaller, more tightly focused, and a more value added rival that has a more frictionless environment in making it easier to serve its customers? Why WOULD consumers choose a more expensive, slower, and convoluted provider?
Sure, some might – especially those that are thinking they may need even more specialized care after a given visit. I’ve been to the local ConvenientMD twice and TMEW once (her as it was over a weekend and for me without healthcare insurance, it was FAR cheaper than going into LRGH’s ER department. All three times the intake process was quick, handled accurately, and we saw doctors within a few minutes. Sure, the exam rooms didn’t have as much equipment as an ER – but more than our family doctor we’ve been seeing for the last 35 years (and cheaper than his rates as well).
But back to the hospital’s whining:
Meyers’ action was required because Littleton Regional, which is about 3 miles away from the ConvenientMD site, is a federally designated critical-access hospital. Under New Hampshire law, a walk-in center that would be located within 15 miles of such a hospital must apply to the state for approval and requires the commissioner to determine whether it would it would have an adverse impact on “essential health care services” provided by the hospital.
Littleton Regional filed a lawsuit against the state health department in October in Grafton County Superior Court seeking to vacate Meyer’s determination and prevent his agency from issuing a license to ConvenientMD. It also asked for a new impact determination and to find that Meyers violated state law by shifting the burden of proof of “material adverse impact” from the health department to the hospital.
Yep, Littleton Regional (“LR”) was depending on Government to act as a barrier to entry to its competition even if it was only in one area of its operation (let’s call it “easy ER” or what used to be called “walk-in clinics”). And, unexpectedly for them, Government said “slug it out in the marketplace and may be best man win”. The days of the CON (Certificate of Need) are over (sorry, Jeb Bradley) and Meyers made the right decision – do nothing (something that govt should do more often but then again, both politicians and bureaucrats often have this intense need to be perceived as “doing something” especially if it means their power and reach grows into areas its original mission legislation never intended). He followed the law – he did what he was to do.
LR threw a hissy fit instead of examining it’s biz model, its people, processes, and products. They wanted to remain in a status quo. Did they even TRY to do a partnership with ConvenientMD? I know that our local hospital, LRGH, is teaming up with ConvenientMD locally (they have to – their biz model is ALSO failing).
As part of that lawsuit, Littleton also filed a motion for a temporary injunction against the health department issuing a license to the ConvenientMD.
A hearing on that motion will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
A report by the hospital’s accounting firm concluded there would be a “devastating financial impact” if ConvenientMD opens, according to court documents. Littleton Regional estimated it would lose $2.6 million in operating margin “due to the loss of an estimated 2,520 annual emergency department visits and related ancillary services.” It would lose an additional $635,000 due to the loss of 3,250 primary care visits, and there would be “continued and increased losses for the obstetrics and behavioral health services,” the hospital said.
Well, that’s what happens when your cost structure and pricing is out of whack – you’re ripe for the picking. You want to keep your local healthcare monopoly – have you learned nothing from when MCI entered the long distance phone biz with a radically new operational model?
All its management can do is run to Mommy Government’s skirts and hide. Of COURSE, the “process” ran to the two most anti-Free Market State Senators in NH:
In its lawsuit, Littleton Regional noted that on the same day Meyers made the impact determination on ConvenientMD Urgent Care, he reached out to two state senators, Dan Feltes and Jeb Bradley, to express his frustration “with the impact-determination process.” Meyers, according to hospital, called the law “broken” and said it forced the health department to “rely upon an inquiry to the critical access hospital to make a determination that it does not necessarily have the information, expertise, resources or guidance to make.”
Translation: I couldn’t give LR the result it wanted. Or me. How about you two chuckleheads – can you change the rules mid-stream for me?
I’m doubtful that they’ll start what should be the PROPER response:
Just compete better – this is where Government should do nothing.
(H/T: Union Leader)
