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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 15, 2008
Hospitals raise perks to draw, treat patients
At suburban Detroit's Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, patients will indulge in gourmet room service, stroll walking trails and take cooking classes. A former Ritz-Carlton executive is running the show.
The description seems more day spa than sick bay. But hospitals are finding it pays to pump up the perks as they compete for patients who want a bit extra — and have private health insurance. Proponents add that these amenities promote healing and stress relief.
Others see a chasm deepening between hospitals pushing into leafy suburbs to grab market share and those serving poorer patient populations. Quentin Young, a longtime Chicago doctor and national coordinator of the nonprofit Physicians for a National Health Program, calls it the "edifice complex."
Because private health insurance offers better reimbursement than government payers like Medicaid or Medicare, the perks are partly meant to lure in more profitable patients, according to those who study health care trends.
Read the foll story at Yahoo! News.
