Closure of Humana Hospital--Symptom of System’s Failures

The Nov. 29 editorial, “Humana Hospital Closure Is a Disaster,” clearly illustrates the impact of many years of cost shifting on our medical infrastructure.

Cost shifting is the practice of charging those who can pay (or their insurance company) for the care of those who cannot pay.

Over the last several years, the growing disparity between the amount allowed (but often not actually paid) by Medi-Cal--and now even Medicare--has transformed a problem into a catastrophe.

Orange County’s hospitals, private physicians, charity clinics and university hospital can no longer shoulder the increasing burden of un- and undercompensated medical care.

The Humana closure is the latest manifestation in this ongoing illness. Emergency department closures affect rich and poor patients, adding critical transport time of patients for care.

This is why the Orange County Medical Assn. holds out hope in establishment of a County Organized Health System.

Such a COHS should provide organized preventive and other necessary care for our nearly 250,000 Medi-Cal patients and be adaptable for other indigent patients and private patients.

The operative words here are organized and system , neither of which exist in Orange County.

If we are creative and flexible in our design, organized and system will define Orange County’s future health-care delivery. If we fail, a national “solution” will ultimately be imposed and Orange County will have lost the chance to chart our own future.

MELVYN L. STERLING MD

President-elect, Orange County Medical Assn.

Orange