A surge in hospital boarding is straining the finances of San Diego-based Scripps Health, forcing the health system to make tough decisions about its care services, Newsweek reported June 18.
Scripps cares for nearly 35,000 patients annually who remain admitted — even when not medically necessary — because there are no openings for them at long-term or post-acute care facilities.
This tally is up 109% from three years ago and comes at an average cost of $1,912 per patient per day. Many of these patients are covered by Medi-Cal, which pays the system about $704 per patient daily. The health system spent $45.7M caring for these patients in the 12-month period ending this April, according to the report.
"This boarding issue, it's a huge economic issue for us," Scripps President and CEO Chris Van Gorder told Newsweek. "It's a patient care issue, but it's also forcing us to make very difficult decisions about the services we can offer so that we can have enough beds to put the patients in."
In March, Scripps shared plans to transfer its obstetrics services from Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista (Calif.) to its Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego campus.
Mr. Van Gorder said the move will help free up beds at its Chula Vista campus in anticipation of intensified boarding challenges expected to come this January when California's Senate Bill 43 takes effect, expanding the criteria for involuntary 72-hour hospital holds.
To help alleviate the strain on hospitals, Mr. Van Gorder has advocated for higher federal reimbursement rates and for extending regulations such as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act to require post-acute facilities to accept more complex, federally-insured patients. He contends that some facilities perform "wallet biopsies," prioritizing admissions for commercially insured patients over those covered by Medi-Cal or Medicare.
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