Delaware County senators reintroduce hospital reform payments

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The Delaware County Senate Delegation has reintroduced a bundle of payments to halt what the four senators deem the “monetary looting of Pennsylvania hospital techniques by non-public fairness and for-profit firms.”

The legislative motion comes after a yr of ward and hospital closures within the Crozer Health system. Lawmakers, employees members, and group members point to actions from Prospect Medical Holdingsthe for-profit proprietor of Crozer, as the rationale for the hospital system’s monetary hemorrhaging.

Final summer season, Delaware County’s Democratic lawmakers got here collectively to debut a series of bills aimed at reeling in for-profit health care. Nevertheless, with out management of both of the legislative chambers, the payments died earlier than they even had an opportunity to be debated outdoors committee.

However with management of the state Home this time round, a bunch of legislators recently revived some of the bills regarding hospital closure notices. Now, state Sens. Amanda Cappelletti, John Kane, Tim Kearney, and Anthony T. Williams are resurrecting a few of the extra bold items of well being care reform laws.

“This yr, we’ve needed to regroup and we labored with quite a lot of stakeholders attempting to determine learn how to tweak the laws we had final yr to make it even higher. So the largest distinction, I feel this yr, is the quantity of enter that we bought from the lawyer common’s workplace when it comes to learn how to construction it. The intent remains to be the identical, mainly to attempt to forestall what occurred right here with Prospect,” Kearney stated.

Senate Bill 546 would prohibit for-profit hospitals. Senate Bill 547 would name for a minimal severance within the case of mass layoffs. Senate Bill 548 would require well being techniques, together with hospitals, nursing properties, and hospices, to supply discover to the state lawyer common’s workplace for main monetary transactions, together with mergers and acquisitions, and sale or lease again agreements. Such discover would then be topic to a overview.