After a long wait for health care competition to arrive in Southwest Georgia, Americans for Prosperity finally has reason to celebrate. The Department of Community Health approved Palmyra Medical Center’s Certificate of Need (CON) application to provide obstetric services on Friday, which means Palmyra will provide Albany mothers with a choice in where to deliver their babies (covered here).
AFP released the following statement:
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) commends the Georgia Department of Community Health for approving Palmyra’s application to provide obstetrical services in Albany.
The decision brings new competition and patient choice to soon-to-be parents in the area. Choice empowers patients, increases health care quality and assists in the managing of health care costs. Providing a choice in care for pregnant women and newborns is something that Americans for Prosperity believes strongly in. Today’s decision will have a positive impact on the health and welfare of the entire Albany community.
According to WALB TV, Phoebe Putney announced that they will appeal the decision in order to continue stifling competition in Southwest Georgia:
“We, of course, will appeal that,” said Dr. Douglas Patten, [VP of Medical Affairs for Phoebe]. ‘The board has taken a well thought out position long ago on this, that dilution of the key service in this community will not offer any community benefit and may actually contribute to dilution of quality of care.
The Coalition for Affordable and Competitive Healthcare (CACH) disagrees with Phoebe Putney:
Vince Falcione represents CACH and says he’s never heard of competition diluting quality, only making it stronger. He said, “Competition helps you get better quality. It’s just, in our opinion, a win for the consumer, a win for the community. I look at this as a start for things to come.”
Today marks a big win for Albany’s health care. I’ll keep you updated on things to come.
{ 8 comments }
I’m all for competition, but honestly, y’all haven’t seen the hospitals down here. My wife uses Pheobe, my sister in law just became an employee of theirs (office she worked in was bought out by them), and they have by FAR the better campus. They are also by FAR the more popular of the two hospitals.
But they are working on setting up a monopoly, and I completely concur this is a bad thing.
So I’ll say good for them, but unless things change pretty drastically, I won’t be using them.
Jason,
The only way you are going to avoid the government being involved in the birth of your libertarian children, who will probably grow up to be devout socialists to spite you, is to hire a mid-wife. Even then you will have to absorb the mid-wife regulatory fee that governor elect handel currently charges as sos.
Then again, once Icarus finishes with that green bean casserole recipe, he may be up for the mid-wife job.
Also, while I thank Jason for thinking of those of us down here in the boonies, this decision was actually in our local news last week…
Maybe someday we’ll have a front-page poster from below the I-16/I-75 interchange…
With some of the horror stories from that area, something had to eventually happen. This is bad news for the people wanting to march toward socialist health care, but it is good to see a little competition in Albany. For conservatives and Georgians, this is a great announcement.
I live in Worth County and Phoebe feels more like a corporate giant than a hospital at times but hey, it’s a business. Competition from an improve Palmyra might be a good thing. As with health care around the nation, the problem is over-charging insured patients to counter the cost of serving the uninsured.
Someone better do something fast because area industry seems seriously concern with healthcare cost and they are pointing toward Cooper Tires exit as an example.
Don’t you just hate it when a monopoly is no longer a monopoly. I think that Phoebe-Putney should spend their energies on making their product/service more attractive to the consumer rather than trying to stifle the competition. The certificate of need is an archaic process that needs to be abolished. Hospitals that may be placed in jeopardy because of the prospect of competition will all be forced to deliver an improved product/service in order to survive. Who wins? The consumer.
Sly and MGR have perfectly valid points, and I concur.
Still say I prefer Phoebe though.
News flash to the SW GA libertarian, Phoebe is a monopoly, they’re not working on setting it up. That’s exactly why one campus “looks” better than the other. But here’s the inside scoop. Phoebe looks better, but the care is sub par and costs way more than it should. Competition will force the hospitals to provide a better service and that means better care, not just fancy waterfalls. When it comes to hospital care, the worse the care, generally the more expensive it is. Keep that in mind when choosing a hospital.
Comments on this entry are closed.