“Size matters when it comes to health care. Just ask the leaders of Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft, who have been forging ahead with a deal that they say is critical for the long-term survival of their 25-bed facility,” Charles Eichacker writes in the Bangor Daily News. “They are close to becoming the 10th hospital to join Northern Light Health, the statewide network that employs almost 13,000 people and includes Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Northern Light Health is not paying a fee to acquire Mayo from the 13 towns that collectively own the institution — that’s one of the arguments in a new lawsuit seeking to block the deal. But supporters of the merger have said that it will nonetheless provide something for the people who use Mayo Regional Hospital and its affiliated practices: the weight of a larger health care organization. After the facility suffered operating losses every year since 2010, its leaders have argued that joining Northern Light will allow Mayo Regional Hospital to stay open by giving it new resources to cut its operating costs and bring in additional revenue. Yet evidence from around the country suggests that new revenue could come from charging people who use the Dover-Foxcroft facility more for the health care they receive there. That’s because large systems that do not have competition can use their size to negotiate higher payments from insurance companies.” Charles Eichacker, “Hospital mergers across US have raised health care prices. Now, another is pending in Maine,” Bangor Daily News.
Jeanne Pinder is the founder and CEO of ClearHealthCosts. She worked at The New York Times for almost 25 years as a reporter, editor and human resources executive, then volunteered for a buyout and founded ClearHealthCosts.
With Pinder at the helm, ClearHealthCosts shared honors for the top network public service journalism project in a partnership with CBS News, as well as winning numerous other journalism prizes.
She was previously a fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism. ClearHealthCosts has won grants from the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York; the International Women’s Media Foundation; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with KQED public radio in San Francisco and KPCC in Los Angeles; the Lenfest Foundation in Philadelphia for a partnership with The Philadelphia Inquirer; and the New York State Health Foundation for a partnership with WNYC public radio/Gothamist in New York; and other honors.
She is one of Crain’s Notable Women in Tech. Niemanlab wrote of ClearHealthCosts that “The Internet hates secrets.”
Her TED talk about fixing health costs has surpassed 2 million views.