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If IU Health is currently the highest cost health provider and it has $9 billion in the bank, why not reduce prices now to more reasonable levels, and then slowly increase them to keep up with inflation [Facing criticism over high fees and profits, IU Health rolls out 5-year price freeze, IBJ.com, Dec. 16].
Why stick with high prices and announce you’ll freeze your high prices for five years to allow inflation to catch up to your high prices? And who is going to remember this story in one to two years, much less five when their prices rise anyway?
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Randy Stonehenge
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IU is generally a medical school. They supply Doctors and students in medical school to work at Eskanazi Health, which is a not for profit and most of their patients can not pay outside what Medicaid will cover. Medicaid reimburses the hospital at a 20% to 30% rate of the actual bill. So, they loose money on most patients. That IU Health (and IU Medical Foundation) has money in the bank is not a sign that something nefarious is going on. [Yet even Eskanazi had enough money in reserve to give $6 million to provide covid health assistance to entities outside their operations]. [This bothers me to a certain degree too.] As a teaching hospital and organization, neither are not rolling in the dough. Personally, I think IU’s presence in Indianapolis is a win win situation. If their patients would be more compliant, make appointments instead of going to the emergency room or calling for an ambulance; they would be able to provide more and better care to more patients. That is true for all of us whether you go to IU Health or any other hospital. Steven Pettinga, Indianapolis.