As citizens of Washington D.C. find out more and more regarding the plan to destroy whatever is left of health care for the poor, through the shut-down of D.C. General Hospital, it becomes clearer precisely what the term "Nazi economic policy" means, especially when applied to the genocide-cum financial shakedown, euphemistically called "the planned financial takeover of D.C. General" that is now in progress. The company that is to take over D.C. General, Doctors Community Healthcare Corporation (DCHC), has been accused by one of its earlier victims, Boston Regional Medical Center, of "16 counts including alleged fraud, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty and civil conspiracy" in a lawsuit filed in that city.
According to the lawsuit, and other sources, DCHC led Boston Regional down the primrose path in 1997, promising to buy that bankrupt hospital for $52 million, causing Boston Regional to turn down two other offers. What actually happened, however, was that DCHC never bought Boston Regional Medical Center, but instead operated through an "interim agreement", intended to place Boston Regional in hock to DCHC's partner financing company, National Century Financing (which owns a minority stake in DCHC). The Worchester Telegram and Gazette reported that "The new DCHC, the lawsuit says, mismanaged money, did not pay taxes or insurance premiums, and drove the hospital into bankruptcy. It also failed to buy the hospital, as promised..."
When it came time to close the deal, instead of the $52 million offer originally advanced, DCHC lowered its offer to $25 million--the exact price of the value of the land on the which Boston Regional was located. When Boston Regional refused, DCHC simply backed out. But there was a catch. In the interim period, DCHC had "facilitated" a $16 million loan from National Century, which was to be paid off by means of the deal-closing. Once there was no closing, guess what? Boston Regional was "on the hook" for $16 million, courtesy of its "finance 'em, fleece 'em and forget 'em" fling with DCHC.
Actually, DCHC pulled the same routine with Greater Southeast in 1999, when it purchased the hospital for $22.3 million instead of the original $39 million negotiated. They accomplished this by truly high-minded, forthright financial negotiations; they pulled out of their original agreement an hour before the announcement of the deal was to be made! That left Greater Southeast with 24 hours to find another partner, or accept the $16.7 "discount" that DCHC was demanding.
The Nazi-like implications of all of his, however, are better indicated, when we consider how Boston Regional, and other poor hospitals are forced to "pay off". Referring to DCHC's financing parner, National Century Financial Enterprises, The Boston Globe wrote: "The company, based in Dublin, Ohio, has made a name for itself in a controversial form of health care financing that struggling hospitals have increasingly turned to. Under this strategy, hospitals sell or pledge their expected insurance reimbursements, or accounts receivables, to companies like National Century, in exchange for cash." The insurance term that refers to the individual account--you, the patient--is a "life". It is the buying and selling of these "lives", the manipulation of hospitals, physicians, and patients, for the sake of speculative profits, that qualifies as the particular, ghoulish distinction of DCHC, and its partner financing company.
So, what is the Control Board seeking to accomplish, by turning over D.C. General, and the "lives" of its patients, to DCHC, if not their destruction? For those that have complained that the characterization of those behind the D.C. General Hospital debacle as "Nazi" in outlook is imprecise, we agree. Perhaps "money-grubbing Nazi" would be more properly descriptive.
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Readings from the American Almanac. Contact us at: american_almanac@yahoo.com.