Nonprofit Hospital Threatens to Stop Admitting Patients Until State Pays Up

RoselandCommunity Hospital, a 162-bed hospital serving a largely poor population fromthe South Side and south suburbs of Chicago, is threatening to take no more patientsunless the State of Illinois pays the hospital what it claims is due from thegovernment, reports the Chicago Tribune. Hospital administrators reportedly assert that the state government owes$6 million for the hospital’s adolescent behavioral health unit.  Roseland CEO and President Dian Powell isreported to have insisted that the hospital’s struggles are not explained by financialmismanagement.  She points to a reductionin the hospital’s deficit from $9 million to $5 million during her 18-monthtenure.  According to the story, IllinoisGovernor Pat Quinn’s office maintains that the state has advanced all of thecurrent year’s payments due Roseland and has attempted to collaborate with Roseland“to create a plan to make better use of any future state funding.”  A spokesperson for the governor is further onthe record stating that the government “is trying toexplore ways to use available financial resources within the law to aid thehospital, but Roseland has not provided any information on how it would usepotential money.”

JRB