Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | February 6, 2017 | wbjournal.com Profit or loss The growing influence of for-profit medicine is changing Central Massachusetts health care T he idea that healthcare orga- nizations make monetary gains from caring for ill patients may be hard for consumers to stomach, but profit-driven health care is a growing local and national trend that doesn't necessarily carry ill effects. The ownership status of community hospitals over the last two decades, both in Massachusetts and the U.S. at large, is a telling signal of the shift away from nonprofit toward for-profit health care. In 1999, about 15 percent of the nation's community hospitals had for- profit owners; by 2015, that figure had risen to 21 percent. The change in Massachusetts was even greater, with for-profit hospital market share grow- ing from roughly 9 percent to 22 per- cent, according to California nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. The trend has trickled down to Central Massachusetts, with hospital providers and others announcing plans to grow here and affiliate with their non- profit counterparts in recent months. Yet, as more for-profit providers move into Central Massachusetts, the CEO of the region's dominant provider – Eric Dickson of UMass Memorial Health Care, headquartered in Worcester – is wary of for-profit medi- cine in the absence of a local, nonprofit partner, as for-profit companies may capitalize on the most profitable areas of health care while eschewing services the community needs that don't render high payments. "That's draining resources out of this community and sending it back to shareholders that can live anywhere," Dickson said. For-profit vs. nonprofit quality While consumer advocates have raised concerns about profit-driven medicine and its impact on healthcare access and quality, a 2014 study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston showed that switching from nonprofit to for-profit status appeared to boost hospitals' financial stability without lowering the quality of care or reducing the proportion of minority and poor patients treated. "Over the past decade, hundreds of hospitals have switched from being nonprofit to for-profit. Our study finds that if the public health goal is to improve hospital care, then focusing on things like for-profit or nonprofit status is a distraction.," said Ashish Jha, pro- fessor of health policy and management at HSPH and senior author of the study, in a press release Harvard issued when the study was released. While local industry experts largely agree, the arrival of more for-profit healthcare companies is a game changer for existing providers who are confront- ing them through acquisitions and affil- iations. "For-profit and nonprofit, particularly in Massachusetts, have worked really, really well together," said Mike Trigilio, president of the personal care division at Amedisys Inc., a for-profit home health and hospice provider based in Baton Rouge, La., and public- ly traded on the Nasdaq. Acquisitions & affiliations Amedisys is the latest for-profit pro- vider moving into Central Massachusetts, planning to make Worcester a new hub for expansion in Central and Western Massachusetts fol- lowing the acquisition of Home Staff, BY EMILY MICUCCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Mike Trigilio, president of personal care, Amedisys Eric Dickson, president and CEO of nonprofit UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, said for-profit providers need a nonprofit community partner to ensure they are meeting the needs of the community. P H O T O / E D D C O T E

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