Sadly not that surprising. The Star Tribune’s Jeremy Olson reports: “Mayo Clinic’s chief executive made a startling announcement in a recent speech to employees: The Rochester-based health system will give preference to patients with private insurance over those with lower-paying Medicaid or Medicare coverage, if they seek care at the same time and have comparable conditions. … The number of patients affected would probably be small, but the selective strategy reveals the financial pressures that Mayo is facing in part due to federal health reforms. For while the Affordable Care Act has reduced the number of uninsured patients, it has increased the share covered by Medicaid, which pays around 50 to 85 cents on the dollar of the actual cost of medical care.”
New gambit in Yanez case. MPR’s Jon Collins reports: “Attorneys for a St. Anthony police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile, 32, during a traffic stop last summer have requested that the trial be moved out of Ramsey County. … Jeronimo Yanez faces second-degree manslaughter charges in Castile’s July 6 death. Yanez, who also faces two felony firearms charges for firing his gun into the car where Castile’s girlfriend and her young daughter were sitting, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.”
Warrant issued. The AP reports (via MPR): “A court in eastern Poland has issued an arrest warrant for a Minnesota man sought in a Nazi massacre, opening the way for Poland to seek his extradition from the United States. … The Associated Press had previously identified the man as 98-year-old Michael Karkoc, an ex-commander in an SS-led unit that burned Polish villages and killed civilians in World War II.”
An attempt to break through the rhetoric around the tip-credit/penalty debate. City Pages’ Mecca Bos writes: “‘Keeping it quiet’ illustrates just how political the minimum wage proposal has become for those who have a stake in it. Many independent restaurant operators say they can’t possibly absorb the added cost of paying employees $15 an hour — not without going broke. … Currently, most tipped employees in Minneapolis make a base rate of $9.50 an hour at businesses that gross $500,000 or more annually, and $7.75 an hour at places that fall below that $500,000 threshold. Any additional income they make is in tips they receive from customers.”
In other news…
Local watchdog Gary Schwitzer on fake health news: “The pollution of health news: Time to drain the swamp” [Health News Review]
You had us at tiny doors: “Tiny ‘mouse’ doors popping up in Minneapolis” [KARE]
St. Patrick’s in St. Paul: “Parade, live music, bars and more events” [Pioneer Press]
“Commentary: Minnesota’s ‘True History’ takes center stage at home opener” [MLS]
Congrats: “Hubbard Honored With First Amendment Award” [KSTP]
Mayo Preferences
So if Mayo is becoming more selective about its patients, perhaps the state of Minnesota, and any governmental/public body needs to be more selective about funding Destination Medical with public dollars. It cuts both ways.
The Mayo’s policy likely violates the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which expressly forbids discrimination on the basis of a person’s “status with regard to public assistance.”
363A.12 PUBLIC SERVICES.
Subdivision 1.
“It is an unfair discriminatory practice to discriminate against any person in the access to, admission to, full utilization of or benefit from any public service because of . . . status with regard to public assistance . . . unless the public service can demonstrate that providing the access would impose an undue hardship on its operation.”
363A.03,Subd. 47.
Status with regard to public assistance. “Status with regard to public assistance” means the condition of being a recipient of federal, state, or local assistance, including medical assistance[.]”
Certainly Noseworthy is newsworthy…
which, one can assume it’s merely a practice that suggests, has been in place but never been publically admitted as standard policy…so what else is new?
Watch closely in the near future as other MN hospitals follow suit and the quality of care goes down…as Trump care establishes itself as standard policy?
The only certainty here is the salaries of physicians and administration take care of their own I suppose?
Mayo growth money comes from government and grateful patients.
The state and federal government have been very good to Mayo Clinic. Quite a way to show appreciate – provide less timely care to Medicare and Medicaid patients, who tend to be sicker, being older and poorer. As for grateful patients, how many of them are Medicare patients who leave money in the their will. Of course, talk to Trump as Noseworthy did, you believe that the winner deserve first class, and everyone can settle for less, you make this kind of boneheaded decision, do the right thing – drop the policy and resign – before Mayo’s reptutation is ruined.