Michigan Medicine acquires Sparrow Health System (Lansing)
I saw this posted on Twitter by our esteemed President, Santa. Seems like a big deal, although I don't know much about these types of mergers. If nothing else, the largest health system in the Lansing area will now have Michigan Medicine signage all over.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:34 AM ^
The cognitive dissonance has to be reaching new levels in EL.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:02 AM ^
Slightly ameliorating the cognitive dissonance of Michigan Medicine signage in EL is that it confirms their conspiracy mania that UM controls everything.
Go Blue (Wall)!
December 9th, 2022 at 12:55 PM ^
Just that Block M all over Lansing/East Lansing should be the source of never ending irritation, kind of like water torture.
Nick Saban was exactly right when, on his way out the door to Baton Rouge, he said he was never going to be able to supplant Michigan.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:20 AM ^
I know it's a joke, but just for the sake of clarity: I live in Lansing and am the only Wolverine in an otherwise Sparty family. Every Spartan I know who has gone to UofM for treatment has nothing but positive things to say about UofM healthcare. Contrary to memes, most Spartans can separate the logo on their medical care from an athletic team.
Sorry for being a wet blanket, but I really didnt want to see a meme start about this because I have a number of family and friends who have had lifesaving procedures @UofM
December 9th, 2022 at 9:40 AM ^
i can agree with this 100%!!! about 6 years ago now my cousins son was born 3 months premature at Sparrow and had a bunch of issues after the birth because of being so premature... Sparrow couldn't get out of their own way and after a month of spinning their wheels there and making no progress my cousin and her husband took their son down to U of M/Mott and within 2 weeks their son started to make enough progress that he was able to finally able to go home...
December 9th, 2022 at 10:38 PM ^
As an Ann Arbor native, I've dealt with Michigan Medicine in a few different capacities (patient, family member of a patient, employee, volunteer), and my experience was always top notch. Great doctors, great nurses, great researchers, great facilities, just all around greatness. Shortly after I moved to Northern California, my infant son got RSV and we took him to Stanford Medicine. Since Michigan was my frame of reference, I thought Stanford must be even better. I couldn't have been more wrong. The doctors and nurses I dealt with wouldn't give me a straight answer on what was wrong with my son and what could be done about it. They were perfectly nice, but I just couldn't get much information out of them. They didn't strike me as particularly good at their jobs. It was like they were perplexed by what turned out to be a simple case of RSV. Also, the facilities were shockingly mediocre. It was like their ER hadn't been renovated since the 1980's. I've heard similar things about UCSF.
Be grateful for Michigan Medicine, because the grass isn't always greener at the handful of places (and it's literally no more than a handful) that have better name recognition.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:48 AM ^
I grew up in GR and very blue collar. Spartan fans in my circle probably outnumbered us Walmart Wolverines 5 to 1. Never ever have had any of the stupid comments frequently mentioned on these boards as Sparty Memes. Not sure if it's people projecting Twitter memes to the real world, or if its people who do a terrible job picking friends, but it sure doesn't match my reality.
I sure can't imagine them making healthcare decisions based on the block M everywhere.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:09 AM ^
Agreed. My brother and a number of my close friends are Spartans have rooted for Michigan to beat OSU, win the B1G, and win the whole damn thing the last two years because they know how much I’ve suffered and what it’d mean to me. Using RCMB as a representative of MSU fans is like using the 30k+ batshit crazy UM fans that regularly listen to Yoder and Deace’s podcasts as a representative of all UM fans.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:23 AM ^
It's exacerbated by the anonymity of being a keyboard warrior. Vast majority of the internet tough guys would never say to your face what they write behind a screen name.
December 9th, 2022 at 11:57 AM ^
Everyone is a tough guy, until shit happens to them.
December 9th, 2022 at 1:14 PM ^
Of course you're right. Jokes about EL and Staee are rivalry jokes.
Bur when it comes to health, health is most important and UM's medicine is terrific.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:35 AM ^
i don't understand why a research university's teaching hospital needs to keep growing and growing all over the state. IU Health has done this as well.
It's probably just business, consolidating market power so you can get better deals on labor and insurance contracts, supplies, etc.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:36 AM ^
You definitely under$tand
December 9th, 2022 at 8:37 AM ^
seems to be the name of the game in healthcare, public and private.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:03 AM ^
... seems to be the name of the game in every major industry ...
FTFY
December 9th, 2022 at 8:39 AM ^
Yeah it$ pretty $imple
December 9th, 2022 at 8:39 AM ^
Hospital consolidation has been a major trend for some time now. You either grow and expand, or get swallowed by someone else that does.
Way too easy to get into politics here, and given how complex the issues are, not helpful either. But expansion is the reality right now.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:19 AM ^
Ten years ago there was roughy 75 independent small community hospitals. Now there are less than ten with Holland Hospital being the only healthy one. Small hospitals just can’t compete in economies of scale. The giants control everything and the bigger giants control even more.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:22 AM ^
Yep, and honestly I see this as a really good move for Lansing. We only have Sparrow and the McLaren health network. I have not been impressed with McLaren and I feel like UofM buying Sparrow helps stave off a McLaren takeover.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:26 AM ^
McLaren administratively takes by far the most aggressive approach into dictating how their Physicians practice medicine. I might go there in a pinch for stitches.
This will much better for the community.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:55 AM ^
This is the new "for profit" approach taking hold everywhere though. I know a couple of Physicians who are trying to leave the field for this specific reason and they are not in the McLaren network. Healthcare systems in the State are struggling due to nursing shortages, contracted labor and inflation on the supply side.
December 9th, 2022 at 11:18 AM ^
Both places are struggling….everywhere is struggling. One of the best kept secrets is that you simply can’t get timely healthcare since the pandemic. Nurses, physicians, ancillary staff are leaving healthcare in droves. Sparrow has closed multiple wings because they don’t have staff, Mclaren is the same. Even UM is struggling. I work at a lot of different places and UM was once a place where you could transfer high acuity patients. Even they are closed to transfers more often than not. I’d be more excited about this acquisition if UM wasn’t already spread so thin. This is a big win for Lansing though.
December 9th, 2022 at 1:35 PM ^
Some of these closures have to do with the current cost of staffing. Staffing agencies have doubled the cost for their services since the pandemic to capitalize on the nurse shortage. Some nurses are even leaving their system to hire in at these companies for better pay. The AHA presented this problem to Washington not too long ago. It's price guaging from their perspective and Hospitals are pushing back on temp staffing now by shutting down services.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:46 AM ^
On a more granular and personal level, it's the same with doctors. I've had a handful of docs over the years who've had very small practices, either just themselves or with another doctor, and they all either had to join a much larger hospital-affiliated practice or left the field. It's a huge bummer. I remember in the "old days" when you could call your doctor, the receptionist would answer, she knew who you were, the doc knew you well. Now I can't get an appointment for 6 months for a physical, and if I'm sick, I can't even see my doctor, I see a nurse practitioner, which is ok, I guess, but it sure was nice having a doctor that was always available.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:18 AM ^
Part of this is the insistence on using "market dynamics" to model everyhing. Not sure how maximizing shareholder returns at the expense of everything else really fits as a model for healthcare services delivery, but here we are.
Another part is government quality reporting, payment structures, and other factors related to health IT. Smaller and independent practices simply do not have the resources to maintain the "paper" (now digital, but same concept) compliance increasingly mandated by the government in order to get paid. Corporate entities have the resources to manage the complexity.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^
It’s not just business. Community hospitals (hell even prestigious university hospitals like Hahnemann) have been going under for awhile now d/t mostly C-suite exuberance unique to America. The pandemic sped it up bc ICU pts are not profitable.
December 9th, 2022 at 11:22 AM ^
Decreases in reimbursement by CMS has also made it so much harder for the little guy to make ends meet.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:11 AM ^
Health care systems only survive with size these days. The big hospitals and systems thrive, the small ones die
December 9th, 2022 at 1:50 PM ^
Picking up another HC system also provides significant business for the specialists in Ann Arbor. Large university hospital systems have the expertise to deal with unusual cases or the aftereffects of botched treatments.
It is also a win for Sparrow Heath, a system that was apparently having some financial issues.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:11 PM ^
Universities are just corporations now. To think otherwise is just naive.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:39 AM ^
It’s a collaborative effort on how to read torn patellar images on advanced MRI.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:40 AM ^
But Mazi Smith!
December 9th, 2022 at 9:10 AM ^
Soon, there will be a Blue Wall that circles East Landfill and all the state will be ours. Wooo-ha-ha-ha!
December 9th, 2022 at 8:42 AM ^
Consolidation ends up being “the trend” in every industry. Economies of scale lead to the perils of monopoly, etc. It’s one of the challenges of capitalism.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:46 AM ^
The economies of scale are significant when merging health providers. Back end medical records systems, finance & accounting, insurance billing/collections. When you can consolidate some of those functions, the G&A savings are large.
The frictional issues come up for medical teams' oversight and governance - lots of pushing & shoving for who will be "the big dogs". MDs are not shy and scrimmage hard to retain their status: it looks like "wrestling for a fallen hot dog under a picnic table". Do not get in their way 🙂
December 9th, 2022 at 8:53 AM ^
The Blue Wall strikes again!!
December 9th, 2022 at 8:56 AM ^
You don't want the truth to come out.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:58 AM ^
McLaren just built a new hospital overlooking the MSU farmland. My preference would have been a merger with them, because nothing would make me smile more than having a big block M watching over their campus.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:01 AM ^
Like Sauron, but in reverse
December 9th, 2022 at 9:02 AM ^
A subtle troll by Santa... Nice.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:09 AM ^
Soon our plan to falsify medical records to keep all college football players from playing will be complete!
MWAHAHAHA!
December 9th, 2022 at 9:09 AM ^
Looks like future Sparty injuries will be treated by Michigan.
With their culture, I wonder how they feel about that?
December 9th, 2022 at 9:13 AM ^
UM looked at the tunnel assault and saw a lot of future medical work to do in EL. That's just smart business
December 9th, 2022 at 9:14 AM ^
A little knowledge is dangerous, and I know a little about both of these systems.
The money-making portions of these hospital systems have to offset the losses they sustain serving their nonprofit missions. That's a tough balance to strike.
There are huge swaths of Michigan (and elsewhere in the US) that are healthcare deserts. Focusing on the massive, tertiary care center hospitals in Ann Arbor or Lansing obscures the vital but under-resourced primary and urgent care centers Sparrow operates in, say, Okemos, Clinton, Granger, or Carson City. Without facilities like those, there are Michiganders who would have to drive hundreds of miles for basic or emergency care.
The healthcare system in America remains broken and stitched together with masking tape and bubble gum. Nonprofit hospital systems like Sparrow, UM Health, and Henry Ford provide hundreds of millions of dollars a year in unfunded care to underserved rural and urban communities that Medicaid (read: tax dollars) doesn't fund. If you, like me, have private employer-subsidized health insurance, count yourself lucky.
::end soapbox::
December 9th, 2022 at 9:20 AM ^
At first I read “undeserved” as “not deserving,” and I was like damn this man is ice cold!
December 9th, 2022 at 9:37 AM ^
A bit of a stretch to say that the American healthcare system is "broken". Also a bit of a stretch to say that Michiganders would have to drive "hundreds of miles" for basic care without facilities in places like Carsen City. Carsen City is about 60 miles from Grand Rapids for example.
Yes there are problems in the American health care system. Mostly about costs, not so much access. If you are a kid with a cardiac problem in Windsor you will wait weeks to see someone and you will have to go to London or Toronto but it will be "cheap"
The mergers of these healthcare systems is as much about capturing patients and feeding them into their systems than is about cost containment. Michigan wants that patient with colon cancer in Clinton to have their surgery in their system and their scans in their system and their chemo in their system.
Hopefully UM Medicine doesn't have their reputation diluted by this merger. Look what happened to Beaumont. Brand dilution in the name of efficiency hasn't yet worked out for them
December 9th, 2022 at 9:58 AM ^
As someone who works in Healthcare, I don't disagree with his primary point. Access is relative. 60 miles to someone who never worries about gas money or reliable transportation is different from those who do.
I work for a for-profit company that operates rural hospitals. It's very difficult to make enough money to cover costs given government reimbursement rates. (And as someone who has worked for both for-profit and not-for-profit companies, let me assure you the difference between them in negligible).
Not that I'm going to quit any time soon, but the model companies like McLaren and Sparrow have are much more efficient than my company's model. And with the consolidation in Insurance companies nationwide bigger is better when dealing with those people.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:04 AM ^
I think your last paragraph is spot on. They should get better leverage in negotiating commercial payor rates and through the supply chain.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:40 AM ^
It's frankly sad what's happened to Beaumont. They drove themselves straight into the ground.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:20 AM ^
I think the structure in EL needs to provide a “very long range transmitter”, perhaps 297 feet tall - to provide for special communications. It’s essential to identify this tower, and I would suggest using the recently replaced scoreboard from Michigan Stadium - with a Block M on both sides to ensure adequate visibility.