Houston partner Robert Wolin was quoted in an April 3, 2009, article, "Unsustainable: Region's Medical Facilities Still Struggling to Take On Extra Load Generated by Hurricane Damage to UTMB," which was published in the Healthcare Focus Section of the Houston Business Journal.
According to the article, six months after Hurricane Ike washed away much of the first floor of Galveston's University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) hospital, the effects of the facility's near-demise are still being felt, putting a logistical and financial strain on other hospitals in the region.
The strain on hospital emergency rooms and their balance sheets is nearing a critical point said Wolin. Finding a solution in which the uninsured patients formerly treated by UTMB can be cared for while the added financial stresses placed on other hospitals is lifted should be a top priority among lawmakers, Wolin said.
"This is a tough nut to crack unless the state is willing to subsidize ER budgets," Wolin said. "The only way they [remaining hospitals] can get money to treat them [uninsured patients] is for the state to pay, or to tax all hospitals an indigent services fee. (But) I don't see that proposal going anywhere." This comes as many hospitals face a decrease in profit-generating areas such as elective surgeries because of the slumping economy, Wolin said.
"Hospitals are suffering from the economic downturn just as anybody else," Wolin said. "They are having trouble accessing the credit markets today, they have heavy debt loads right now."