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MARCH 2023 / $5
Alabama Hospitals Facing Financial Collapse FrOm the aLaBama hOSpitaL aSSOciatiOn:
Hospital margins in Alabama have dropped 79 percent since the start of the pandemic, despite receiving financial assistance directly from the federal government and federal funds distributed through the state. Currently, 50 percent of Alabama’s hospitals are operating in the red. These jarring statistics came from a report released today by Kaufman Hall, a nationally known healthcare and higher education consulting firm, prepared at the request of the Alabama Hospital Association. Kaufman Hall prepared a similar national report for the American
are likely on a collision course with disaster, and we have only a short window to avoid losing access to services or seeing some hospitals close,” said Donald E. Williamson, MD, president of the Alabama Hospital Association. “While the access crisis will be worse in already underserved rural areas, as local hospitals close and patients pursue care in larger centers, many of the financially precarious urban facilities may not have the resources to absorb the volume. This report should be the canary in the coal mine for our
Hospital Association in the fall of 2022. “Last year was the worst year financially for hospitals nationwide, but the situation in Alabama is much worse,” said Erik Swanson, senior vice president of data and analytics with Kaufman Hall and the lead on the national and the Alabama reports. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, Alabama’s hospitals have lost $1.5 billion dollars, money they couldn’t afford to lose. The report clearly shows that Alabama’s hospitals are in serious financial difficulty which creates a huge threat to the ability of Alabamians to have access to healthcare.” “This study demonstrates that we
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Improving the Odds Against Lung Cancer By Laura Freeman
Doctors at the O’Neal Cancer Center looking over x-rays.
It’s the most lethal cancer in the United States. However, advances in screening, diagnostics and new therapies are at last improving the prognosis for lung cancer—if it can be detected in time. “We saw a 20 percent reduction in mortality in a national research program using low dose CT for early screening of patients who are most at risk,” UAB radiology professor Nina Terry, MD said. “Based on those findings, new guidelines suggest an annual screening CT between the ages of 50 and 80 (50 and 77 for
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Medicare patients) who smoke 20 packs per year or more, and those who have quit smoking for less than 15 years. Since the CT is low dose, we can screen annually, like we do for breast cancer.” If there is a questionable area on the image, it can be either watched with follow-up scans or biopsied. Advances in biopsy technology are also making this more comfortable for the patient, as well as more accurate. Interventional pulmonologist Aline Zouk, MD said. “Robotic bronchoscopy allows us to get answers in a less invasive way. Patients can (CONTINUED ON PAGE 4)
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