Cheboygan Memorial Hospital In Michigan to Close After Sale Was Blocked–No Money to Stay Open

I sure hope I don’t have to revive my series I did a while back after the financial crash called Desperate Hospitals but in watching the news about healthcare today the closures are on the rise if they run out of money or don’t get purchased by a larger organization.  Even some of the big ones are running real tight today. 

Add on buying some software that does does some awry billing in some areas and fines levied don’t help either.  Sure there are cases of out and out fraud but on some of this there’s some algorithms in the software out there that should take some blame too as nobody certifies payer software like we do on the clinical side. 

The hospital is the largest employer in rural Cheboygan county and the ER room is slated to go first.  BD 

Cheboygan Memorial Hospital said it has been forced to shut down Tuesday after a proposed sale of the facility to McLaren Health Care Corp. was blocked, throwing hopes of preserving health services at the area's largest employer into doubt.

 

The sale of the hospital to Flint-based McLaren was expected to wrap up Tuesday but came to a halt late Monday amid regulatory issues, the Cheboygan Daily Tribune reported ( http://bit.ly/HGLSSk). The Board of Trustees of Cheboygan Memorial Hospital voted to close, saying it didn't have the money to stay open.

The hospital's Chief Executive Officer Shari Schult said the facility's emergency room will be closed and that arrangements will be made to divert ambulances to other hospitals. She said in a statement that other services also will be shut down, including outpatient clinics, laboratories and rehabilitation.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9TTISCO2.htm