N&O series on hospitals proves our Gang of Five Blind Mice gave away $50 million on a false premise...that non-profit hospitals don't make a profit | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    How can "conservatives" Klemm, McRoy and Evans support less competition in the face of this information?

    Back last year when the future of the Beaufort County Hospital was being debated, a cornerstone argument was made by the supporters of University Health Systems (UHS, now Vidant) that UHS would be a better choice than Community Health System (CHS), even though CHS offered a better deal, because UHS was a "non-profit" operation and therefore would provide better service at a more economical price because it did not drain resources away to pay dividends to stockholders. A quick review of those who spoke at the public hearings reveals that this argument was the single most frequently mentioned reason to go with UHS. Even some doctors displayed the same lack of understanding of economics.

    We said at the time that being incorporated as a "non-profit" did not automatically mean that such organizations did not make a profit. The only question is for whom do they make the profit and how much of a profit do they make?

    Now we learn from a new investigative series being run by the News & Observer that indeed most of the "non-profits" in this state make a handsome profit. And the series documents exactly what we said last year when we argued that such profits simply go to different recipients than do the profits in shareholder owned corporations like CHS.
Vidant Beaufort Hospital, formerly UHS Beaufort Hospital, formerly Beaufort Regional Health System, formerly Beaufort County Hospital, could lead on to question: Why so many names?     photo by Stan Deatherage
    We don't know if the N&O series will document this, but we'll repeat another contention we made last year. The most significant issue in the astronomical costs of health care is the fact that there is a dearth of competition. We even had people stand up at the public hearings, and two county commissioners (Al Klemm and Jay McRoy) and a senate candidate (Jerry Evans) and argue that we don't need competition if it is a "non-profit" that is providing the service. They told us "non-profits" plow their resources back into the business. Now we learn differently.

    Study the documentation in the N&O series and you see that exactly the opposite is true. Non-profits do not necessarily have lower margins than for-profits corporations like CHS. They don't charge less. And they don't offer any better service simply because they are non-profit. Study the articles and you will see this. (Note: look at the wide variance in the data. Clearly there are other variables other than the ownership of the organization that drive the amount of profit these non-profits make).

    Click here to access the stories in the N&O series published thus far.

    And check back for more. You are going to be astounded at what you'll learn. But before you get bogged down in all the numbers, let us just tell you what all this means: The UHS Cheerleaders, including the Gang of Five on our County Commission simply did not know what they were talking about. They bought a "pig in a poke" in blindly (Five Blind Mice) jumping on the UHS bandwagon without having solid data and information. They gave away $50 million based on the false premise that non-profits don't make a profit. And they shafted the people of Beaufort County in discarding competition in the delivery of our health care.