The Governor of Pennsylvania pushes the reform of investment capital after the closure of Crozer’s health

The Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, urges the legislators to advance a pair of bills which would increase the surveillance of health transactions by state regulators – the Senate bill 322 And House Bill 1460 – In the midst of increasing concerns that the ownership of for -profit health care led to a drop in the quality of health care and access through the state.

The governor made his field last week during a visit to the Crozer-Checking Center based in Delaware. The installation is closed for two weeks, after an effort by a year of Shapiro and the county officials did not prevent its owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, from suddenly closing the hospital and the Taylor hospital nearby.

The installations are representative of the problem that Shapiro sees in the wider system – investors in investment and certain for -profit owners draining the hospitals of resources to become rich. Over the past five years, Pennsylvania has seen 26 hospitals, said Shapiro.

“Investment capital has no place in our health care system. We have seen what is happening when corporate looters like Prospect Medical Holdings prioritize patients-families lose access to care, that health workers lose their jobs and Commonwealth communities suffer,” said Shapiro on Thursday.

The legislation will grant the prosecutor of the State the increased power to scrutinize the health agreements, would oblige companies to submit more financial disclosure before completing the mergers and hospital acquisitions, as well as transactions for sale of bars by investment capital companies.

This is not the first time that Pennsylvania legislators have turned to reinstatement in investment capital and the interests of companies in health care. However, similar invoices were struggling to gain ground in the two rooms. Last year, an almost identical bill cleared the chamber before dying in the Senate, after the Republican legislators refused to vote the bill.

However, the governor is increasingly intolerant of the inability of legislators to adopt legislation on health care reform.

In February, Shapiro responsible for legislators to adopt legislation to suppress the interests of businesses and investment capital in the provision of health care during its budgetary address.

“I have finished letting the investment capital treat the hospitals of Pennsylvania as a piggy bank They can empty and break on the ground, “said Shapiro.” Make the bills, put them on my desk and stop letting the capital of our health care system. »»

Crozer’s closure has further amplified the pressure on legislators to pass reforms.

Prospect Medical Holdings bought Crozer, a four -hospital health system for $ 300 million in 2016, committing to keeping the facilities open for 10 years. However, nine years later, all the facilities had closed, with the last two, Crozer-Chezer and Taylor, ending during the prospect bankruptcy procedure this spring.

The closures have Cost 2,600 workers jobs and encouraged The disruption of care for more than 570,000 residents of the county of Delaware, said state and premises officials. In at least one case, a patient died following the closure of the Crozer trauma unit, after a typical five -minute trip to Crozer for a ball victim turned into a 30 -minute trip to another establishment.

“If Crozer was open, we could have saved it,” said Max Cooper, an emergency doctor who worked before Crozer at a press conference on Thursday.

This is the exact scenario that judge Stacey Jernigan is worried when she approved the request for prospect to close Crozer’s health on the decline of nurses last month, who warned her of the possible damage to patient care.

“I worry that people get into a car wreck or get shot or burned, a mother entering work. I just hate the consequences spread here,” Jernigan said during an audience to approve the closure. However, Jernigan determined that she had no other option because Prospect was not in cash.