This is not just another healthcare rant of mine. This is real, verifiable shit. You all know my personal story. No need to rehash. This is about the healthcare system for the entire Northeastern TN, Southwestern VA, Eastern KY, and Western NC region. For future reference COPA= Certificate of Public Advantage In the last couple of years, the state has approved a healthcare monopoly to a for-profit corporation. Mountain States Health Alliance & Wellmont Health System were allowed to merge into Ballad Health, monopolizing healthcare in the aforementioned areas. The people have opposed this from the start. The corporate leaders have embraced it. Guess who is getting screwed... Ballad's CEO, Alan Levine (former Mount Stares CEO) has announced it is consolidating Level 1 trauma services in Johnson City, the least centrally located hospital in the area. Holston Valley's ER in Kingsport was the areas first Level 1 trauma center. It is bigger, & more up to date than Johnson City Medical Center. Holston Valley can also land 2 helicopters at a time opposed to JCMC's 1 helicopter. Keep in mind, Kingsport has the areas largest & most dangerous employer in Eastman Chemical Company, a Fortune 500 company. Transport times to JC will be increased 30 minutes under the best circumstances. Holston Valley's ER, requiring 28 specialists now, is proposed to be downgraded to a Level 3, requiring only 4 specialists not even requiring a trauma surgeon. Bristol Regional Med Center will also be downgraded from a Level 2 (24 specialists required) to a Level 3 as well (again, only 4 specialists required & no trauma surgeon). Ballad has lied in public meetings as to what services would be lost. I have recordings of their lies. Alan Levine has also announced that Holston Valley will lose their Level 3 NICU. All NICU services are, again, being moved to JCMC, the least centrally located hospital in the system. Holston Valley would have no NICU whatsoever. They have told nurses at Holston Valley they had 1 week to determine if they were moving to Johnson City, and that they could begin "shadowing" in JC & learning the computer system at JCMC as well (JCMC doesn't even use EPIC, the national standard. The JC NICU also still uses equipment that Holston Valley's NICU phased out over 15 years ago. The HV NICU was rebuilt 2 years ago at a cost of over $2 million from a private donation specifically for a new NICU. Their equipment at HV is also state of the art. JC's NICU has renovated their entrance in the last 20 years. That's it. Another proposed change is to chemotherapy services. Currently, chemo infusions are given at Wellmont Oncology Center, a doctor's office. That means that patients only pay a doctor's co-pay for each infusion. Ballad got a permit to remodel a facility behind Indian Path Medical Center in Kingsport, a $2.48 million project, in October of this year. The facility is 70% complete & is scheduled to open January 21st, 2019. This facility is less than 250 yards from the main hospital. Because of that, Ballad is able to consider that building a "hospital facility". As a result, Ballad Health is adding a $130 "facility fee" in addition to the doctors co-pay FOR EVERY TIME A PERSON GOES THROUGH THE DOOR TO RECEIVE CHEMOTHERAPY. What was costing someone $100/mo for treatments has now been increased over 5 times to a total of $620/mo just because of the "facility fee". That's criminal. In addition, Ballad has instituted a pre-pay policy for PET scans. Patient must pay the full amount ($400 on average) BEFORE they can get a PET scan to even see if their treatments are working or if they need adjusting. On top of this, insurances will not continue to cover cancer treatments without these regular scans. Can't pre-pay? Screw you. You're going to die. The change to the ERs was in the original COPA agreement. They just didn't specify where they would consolidate the Level 1 services, & they picked the worst located hospital of all to do so. The changes to the NICU & cancer treatment centers were NOT in the COPA & requires state approval. Ballad Health has NOT received state approval for their plans for these two services despite already announcing closures/changes to the NICU & cancer services, telling employees to choose whether or not to move, already diverting babies away from Holston Valley to JC, and 70% completion of a new infusion center that increases costs to patients over 5 times. These changes violate the state's term for granting the monopoly and constitutes legal grounds to dissolve this monopolistic merger. A Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) was issued by the state commissioner of health, John Drezhyner. This COPA called for complete transparency in all dealings. Two weeks after the COPA was issued, state senator, Rusty Crowe (R- Johnson City), introduced SB 2048 that would change the state laws & allow Ballad to withhold decisions to consolidate/close services from the public that was written by Ballad & handed to Crowe to pass. There's a lot wrong with that, not the least of, a conflict of interest. Rusty Crowe is the VP of a company called Shared Health Services, a company that provides wound care equipment to hospitals. Crowe's company held an exclusive contract with the old Mountain States & now holds exclusive contracts with Ballad. This expanded the business into the former Wellmont hospitals. Can you say conflict of interest? He has been reported to the Senate Ethics Committee. Rep. Gary Hicks (R- Hawkins/Hancock Counties) sponsored the state house version of Crowe's (read Ballad's) bill. Speaking of conflicts, let's go back to John Drezhyner. His wife is the medical director of psychiatry at a former MSHA, now Ballad hospital in Wise, VA. She also has 2 private companies, Starfish Health, LLC providing tele psych services) & Senior Health Solutions in Knoxville. Guess who else has exclusive contracts with Ballad now. You guessed it, John Drezhyner's wife. Keep in mind Drezhyner had to approve the COPA for it to be issued. More corruption & self-dealing. Dr. Drezhyner is now under investigation by the state deputy attorney general, Janet Kleinfelter, after being made aware of these conflicts by concerned citizens fighting Ballad. There are other incestuous type conflicts, but let's look at the CEO, Alan Levine. Prior to coming to MSHA in January 2014, Levine was the executive VP with Health Management Associates, a company that operated for-profit hospitals in 14 states. Levine was the president of the Florida group. HMA was the focus of a 60 Minutes investigative report for admission kickbacks that defrauded Medicare, Medicaid & Tri-Care. They imposed admission quotas on ER docs of 20% regardless of need. The doctors that refused to meet the fraudulent quotas were fired. Here's the 60 Minutes piece. Alan Levine is interviewed around the 8:50 mark, I think. Tell me if you think he'sbeing truthful in his denials of the illegal admissions kickback scheme. Remember, Levine left in January 2014. The US DOJ launched an investigation that same month looking into the illegal admissions kickbacks & Medicare, Medicaid & Tri-Care Fraud. In September this year, the US Department of justice announced a $260 million criminal settlement with HMA. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/hosp...ve-false-billing-and-kickback-allegations-one This is fraud. This is corruption. This is greed at the expense of the welfare of an entire region. I'm proud to be a part of the fight to get rid of this medical monopoly abomination called Ballad Health. I would appreciate any and all support anyone can/is willing to give. This is a long and detailed issue. I have tried to be brief. There is even more to tell, but I'll leave it at this for now. This is why I hate a profit based health systems who has been given a monopoly. The greed of Ballad and its masters will literally kill people in this region. We have nowhere else to turn for healthcare. We will continue to carry the fight to Mr. Alan Levine & his merry band of crooked assholes. We will also continue to push for any state officials to face justice for any possible improprieties.
So far, the Sullivan County Commission, the Scott County (VA) Board of Supervisors, Bristol's Board of Mayor & Aldermen, and as of last night, Hawkins County Commission all have passed multiple resolutions opposing Ballad & their [illegal] changes. Hawkins County passed 4 seperate resolutions, with a 21-0 unanimous vote on each one, just last night. Ballad was supposed to attend, but decided they didn't want to sit through the beating & pointing out of their misdeeds and corruption during the public comment time. They didn't attend. Care to guess what Ballad's bullshit slogan is? "It's your story. We're listenening." No joke...
Sadly this is the norm, not the exception, for hospitals, both for-profit and non-profit. (I'm looking at you Mission.)
That sucks. For Rogersville, you re looking at 45-60 MORE minutes transport time via ambulance. Your golden hour is already gone
Wellmont was a community not-for-profit system built by community donations. Now we have Ballad. Watch the video in my 1st post if you can. It's literally criminal what HMA did. They stole from all taxpayers. Levine was a Rick Scott HCA crony, and is on DeSantis' healthcare committee. Lord help us all.
I'm well-aware of that one from the consulting days. I am generally amazed by most of it. Most healthcare admins just don't care. At all.
You're 100% correct. Business folks running healthcare facilities look at only the business side of it.
https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/He...st-of-Ballad-Health.html?ci=featured&lp=1&ti= This Ballad Health thing is just getting worse. And it was more than 200. A 500 capacity auditorium was near capacity at 5:00 on a work day.
Is this a good thread for discussing drug prices and pharma Execs testifying about them in front of Congress?
It's a part of the problem, but as IP said, it may get lost in this thread. Your proposed topic is important, so it deserves it's own thread, imo. But in the vein, one testimony last night, a woman, who had billing proof with her, told the committee that Ballad told her that the drug she has been getting as an infusion she is required to get would no longer be available & she would have to switch to a non-formulary drug. There's no issue with her old drug. It's still available & highly effective. Ballad had just made the decision they were not going to offer that drug in their infusion centers anymore. The new drug requires a 2 day infusion (5-6 hours/day) over the 1 day (4-5 hours) with the old one. More time at the infusion center, the more money Ballad makes. The cost per infusion went from around $3500 with the old drug to around $13,500 for the new 2 day infusion...over a $10k increase...just because they can. Like I said, she presented her bills as proof and provided copies to the COPA Compliance Committee as evidence of COPA violations as they relate to pricing. Now before anyone says "Just go to another infusion center", that's impossible because the COPA gave Ballad a medical monopoly in Northeast TN and SW Virginia. There is no other place to go unless willing to drive to Knoxville or Roanoke. These type instances are the norm now, not the exception ever since the merger with Allan Levine as CEO, President, & Chairman of the Board. Medicare & Medicaid fraud has been a constant wherever Levine has worked. The outrageous prices will effect private insurance premiums as well. Please note. I am not directly accusing Alan Levine of Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance fraud. I'm simply saying that wherever Alan Levine has been in upper management, there have been serious cases of Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance fraud.
are other health plans, United, TRH, Farmers, BCBS, not available? Doesn't matter who owns a facility. Insurance coverage is usually a set amount, a copay, 80/20 and max out of pocket.
Ballad will not offer access the drug. Ballad's decision, not insurance. This is a provider issue, not an insurance issue.
