Arizona Folks Must Not Read USA Today, Or Maybe They Think It Didn't Happen Here...

The effects of the financial catastrophe briefly outlined below by writer Del Jones of USA TODAY are still being felt by the poor, elderly and disabled in Arizona. An astounding dollar amount of Medicaid accounts receivable were lost for the Arizona AHCCCS program (Arizona’s Medicaid) through investments made by the counties through the Arizona State Treasurer’s office. Our Medicaid services have not yet recovered from this loss; the deception, lies and sidestepping used by the Cochise County and the state to keep this information from the public and many of the service companies involved is so unethical that it should forerun impeachment of every elected official in this state.

Posted online 11/21/2002

By Del Jones, USA TODAY

NCFE’s ills put patients at risk

The care of critically ill patients nationwide is threatened as hospitals and health care providers run out of cash to pay for workers and medical supplies.

The crisis, mostly for poor and elderly patients on Medicaid and Medicare, stems from the collapse of National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE), which is bogged down in bankruptcy, an FBI investigation and charges of fraud.

Figuring out the blame might take years, but there could be an immediate impact on a health care system that was already “teetering on life support,” says W. David Leak, medical director of Pain Control Consultants in Columbus, Ohio, a practice of doctors whose specialty is pain relief for patients such as those who recently had back surgery.

The NCFE bankruptcy has created a domino of bankruptcies of others that used its financing services. Hospitals have filed for bankruptcy protection in Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Chapter 11 typically might buy them time to negotiate fresh loans or pay employees from fresh patient money coming in. But due to NCFE’s contract, even future receivables are tied up in bankruptcy court, leaving few companies willing to make deliveries of critical medical supplies.

Tender Loving Care, a provider of in-home health care, has filed for bankruptcy protection. Its parent, Med Diversified, has not filed, but says there is a growing possibility that it might not make payroll to 13,000 workers. That means 175,000 patients in 23 states, most elderly and poor, might already be scrambling to get on the waiting lists of other companies and could find themselves at the back of a long line.

Med Diversified spokeswoman Angeline Cook says the company is doing what it can to secure short-term financing. It will give advance notice to employees if the payroll can’t be made, she says.

She says she worries that the problem could spin out of control. “The probability that more companies could go bankrupt and therefore affect patient care is very high,” Cook says.

“Are we in a desperate situation? Yes,” Cook says.

“We don’t make widgets,” Med Diversified CEO Frank Magliochetti testified last week in U.S. District Court in Ohio.

“When you say that we lose a customer, that means we have a 4-year-old kid sitting in Connecticut where a nurse isn’t going to show up this afternoon to give him or her an oncology drug. So we are right now desperately trying to find skilled labor that will go there without getting paid.”

The FBI raided the NCFE offices in Dublin, Ohio, over the weekend. CEO Lance Paulson resigned two weeks ago. Bondholders have alleged financial improprieties, but no charges have been filed.

Health Care Companies contracted with NCFE because NCFE would give them a discounted amount of cash immediately and wait for reimbursement from the government or insurance companies.

“It sure sounds good to get your money in a week rather than wait eight to twelve weeks,” Leak says. “But now their money, even money to be received in the future, is being held for a company that can’t be salvaged,” Leak says.

“Millions are missing,” Leak says. “It’s a health care Enron. Health care providers from sea to shining sea are involved in this thing.”

Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2002-11-21-patients_x.htm