St. Charles
What kind of regional medical facility and the only hospital system in our tri-county area rejects taking care of 26,000 of our most at-risk residents? St. Charles recently complained about the extra time it takes to process Medicare Advantage claims and how sometimes these claims are rejected and that some patients have to stay in the hospital for an extended time until an open bed at their next level of care facility is available. Boohoo. Every hospital in the country has to do that. As a retired nurse, this was a daily occurrence at every hospital I worked at from bigger to smaller facilities than St Charles. Which is listed on Pro Publica as a Nonprofit Organization Tax Code Designation: 501(c)(3). Also according to Pro Publica St Charles Total Revenue for 2020, their latest published report was $912,828,183, Total Functional Expenses, $904,043,480, $3 million was just the top three executives’ incomes. Their Net income $8,784,703, Tax Exempt.
They define themselves this way: Charles Health System is a nonprofit organization that provides care to all regardless of their ability to pay for services. Philanthropic donations fund innovation in programming, building expansions and initiatives that improve the patient experience. If that is true and a mission statement, then why are they going to refuse care of a large percentage of our community?
These people will have no hospital care here, their PCPs will most likely not want to treat them knowing they cannot admit them to the area’s ONLY hospital. Can you imagine the impact of their lives? Hospitals in Portland are obviously not convenient for heart attacks, strokes, car accidents or a multitude of other medical emergencies. If that is what St Charles is offering them, they will simply not survive. -26,000 of our neighbors. Most will have no choice but to move to a community that cares enough for them to offer them hospital care.
This is not only the definition of uncompassionate but a huge FU to our community.
— Marla Montana, RN
RE: Medicare Disadvantage. News, 8/24
I work with many hundreds of clients in Central Oregon and offer both kinds of plans (Original and Medicare Advantage). There is no “one-size-fits-all” plan that’s “best” for everyone. Most people who choose to go on Medicare Advantage do so for very good reasons. The same is true for those on Original. Both options are good but have different priorities.
How does Medicare Advantage stack up overall when compared to Original Medicare? In a review of 35 separate observational studies comparing the two since the passage of the ACA, this was the conclusion:
“Analyses compared quality of care (41%), health outcomes (44%), and spending (15%). Overall, 65% of analyses found a statistically significant relationship: 52% favored MA and 13% favored TM.”
More than half of recent analyses comparing MA and TM find that MA delivers significantly better quality of care, better health outcomes, and lower costs compared with TM.(source: https://www.ajmc.com/view/quality-health-and-spending-in-medicare-advantage-and-traditional-medicare)
Since the paper was written by two doctors for a journal of managed care, I can’t speak to their bias. But it does suggest strongly that when it comes to results, Medicare Advantage is more than holding its own. If you’re on Medicare, you should be able to choose the kinds of plans that best fit your own needs and budget.
—Don Layton via bendsource.com
As the only hospital in Central Oregon, St. Charles should continue to accept whatever insurance patients have, just as they should continue to provide services to people with no insurance at all.
As far as fraud is concerned, many hospitals have been accused of Medicare fraud.
Perhaps Central Oregon needs a second hospital.
—Geoff Reynolds via bendsource.com
Franklin underpass
I’m asking for help with the Franklin underpass; specifically the pedestrian/cycle corridors. I know the City is aware of the problems and I’ve seen some efforts and I’ve heard some discussions about the problems. But those are not enough.
Last week I tried to cycle through the pedestrian corridor because of how dangerous the underpass is. I encountered three mid 20s men cooking and smoking meth and was unable to pass. Two hours later, my incoming freshman daughter wanted to walk to Bend High for soccer practice using the same underpass. Which parent reading this would let their kid walk through a tunnel infested with homeless people smoking meth? This was not an isolated incident. I’ve seen it dozens of times in the same location.
The only east/west way from downtown Bend is via that walkway. I’m a dedicated commuter cyclist with over 5,000 miles riding in this town. On the best of days in the best of locations it can be dangerous and upsetting. The Franklin underpass is among the most dicey for riders and walkers.
I know there are exciting plans for a safe east/west pedestrian/bike corridor. Between now and then, I’m asking the City and the police department to prioritize police foot patrols of the walking corridor, to remove people blocking the throughway and/or doing drugs in the open. Can resources be deployed to remove the human waste, glass, needles, homeless flotsam and jetsam including beds, tents, bike trailers and other trash?
Juniper Swim and Fitness and several schools are on the other side of that throughway. It seems reasonable to ask that we prioritize making it safe.
Thanks for your consideration.
—Will Warne
Letter of
the Week:
Thanks for your specific suggestions, Will! Come on by for your gift card to Palate.
—Nicole Vulcan
This article appears in Source Weekly August 31, 2023.
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“Infested” with homeless persons? I would substantiate my claims before demonizing an entire class of people living in our community. I would not apply a pejorative word to describe all of them. The 2023 Point In Time Count revealed that perhaps 10% of unhoused people may be struggling with addictions. To unthinkingly broaden that number to categorize all of them as such is a breathtaking presumption. Increasingly, for example, internally displaced economic refugees–many of them older citizens–are finding themselves denizens of homeless encampments.
We now have a national misinformation campaign directed against the homeless that is being coordinated by the same dark money forces that are seeking to undermine trust in public education, teachers, and public health institutions. Locally, we have a notorious regional societal disrupter just hired by the Sheriff to dispense erroneous information designed to erode confidence in efforts to provide shelter, transitional housing, and services and care in Central Oregon. We have an elected County official who distributes the writings of Christopher Rufo, the architect of Critical Race Theory pandemonium and opponent of policies geared to address poverty, addiction, and disabilities.
Iron Law of Woke Projection never misses!
@fosterfell — Paranoid much? Everyday people witness on a regular basis the reality that some portion of the People Who Experience Houselessness population are unhinged, on drugs, and/or experiencing a mental health crisis.* Dark money forces are more likely to be involved in making $$$ off these people’s confusion, desperation, and addiction than bothering to create anti-homeless propaganda.
No propaganda is needed. When someone is smoking meth or shooting up on the sidewalk in front of a tent, or screaming at you on the sidewalk in a schizophrenic freakout, it makes an impression!
If 10% of the housed population is smoking meth, if 10% of them are alcoholic and/or mentally unwell, they’re probably doing it in their houses, meaning that people can still walk to school or cycle to work without being witness to open drug use or be accosted by lunatics. Seems like this letter writer is asking for something reasonable. Can the rest of us please be able to walk or cycle which is better for the environment? If the streets and underpasses are bad, more people will drive, causing more traffic clogging and more carbon emissions.
*In case it matters: I and some of my family members are or have been mentally ill, addicted, and/or homeless, and/or housing insecure. I’ve lived in places where the unhoused were given public parks to live in. I’ve been friends with people who lived in these parks, some of whom were addicted to crack cocaine. Sometimes we would call the cops on a mentally unbalanced community member just to keep them safe in jail overnight, especially women who were routinely raped in the park homeless village. My sympathies are still with all those folks. But it is obvious to me that “live and let live” is a cruel and poor strategy for dealing with homelessness, mental illness, and/or addiction.
@Polly F: Much to agree with. Thank you for transmitting your lived experience and for demonstrating your obvious compassion. I would just like to see measures taken to help all categories of unhoused people–and not paint them with too broad of a brush. That’s what bothered me about the throw-away line in the Letter of the Week, “infested with homeless people.” How we talk about others does influence policy and can interfere with efforts to help. It can even (and this is where my paranoia kicks in) fuel scapegoating, persecution, and violence.
Young men “cooking” meth in the Franklin underpass is a serious offense–and a police matter. An elderly woman with multiple sclerosis who has just lost her home of 6 years on Hunnell Road and now faces an uncertain existence–that’s a civil rights matter. We must learn as a society to know the difference.