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OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) — As new information surfaces about the shutdown of West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, leaders of safety-net healthcare facilities are expressing grave concerns about the future for providers catering to the city’s most economically disadvantaged patients.
While the closure of West Suburban wasn’t entirely unforeseen, it still took other Chicago safety-net healthcare providers by surprise. Stephanie Willding, CEO of CommunityHealth, shared her thoughts on the situation.
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“It wasn’t shocking, but the speed and manner of the closure were indeed surprising,” remarked Willding, who runs a free clinic staffed by volunteers for the uninsured. “Many safety-net institutions, including hospitals and federally qualified health centers, are in the throes of a financial crisis. Whether they are on the brink of shutting down or reducing services, changes are inevitable to keep their doors open and continue serving the community.”
These healthcare providers face a precarious situation, even if they manage to conclude a fiscal year without incurring debt. Their patient base often includes the city’s lowest-income residents, those on Medicaid, and the uninsured, who frequently have complex medical needs. Willding emphasized that this business model is unsustainable in the long term.
“A health center, federal-qualified health center, or safety-net hospital loses money on every patient visit,” Willding noted.
Willding said she expects it to become even more difficult when new work requirements for Medicaid go into effect next year.
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“Hundreds of thousands of people losing their insurance, like, I’m seeing so much of my life’s work go backwards. We can anticipate that the challenges are actually just beginning,” she explained.
As health care providers in Illinois are reacting to the surprise shuttering — there are more details about the financial chaos at West Suburban Medical Center.
Payment and care issues were prevalent well before it closed its doors.
A letter sent in January from Illinois Emergency Medicine Specialists and obtained by the I-Team is formal notice of contract breach, sent to Resilience Healthcare CEO Manoj Prasad, the owner of West Suburban.
IEMS contracts emergency medicine doctors to hospitals, including West Suburban.
READ MORE | Pastors, community leaders call for West Suburban hospital to reopen under new leadership
The letter stated Resilience Healthcare owed doctors more than $900,000, claiming, “Despite more than five prior written notices of breach, multiple extensions of time, and repeated opportunities to cure, the Hospitals have failed to remedy their payment defaults…”
Humboldt Park Health CEO Jose Sanchez, who runs an anchor safety-net hospital in the community, told the I-Team the blame for any privately owned company’s closure lies at the feet of the owner.
“If you decide that you’re going to be you are a capital investor, and you purchase a hospital, and then, yeah, you responsible to take care of everybody, regardless of their ability to pay. OK, you don’t have any choice. It’s not the government’s responsibility to assist you to keep that business going,” said Sanchez.
CommunityHealth had just started a mammography partnership with West Suburban for clients in the Oak Park area and said they had to end that partnership without warning. Willding said if West Suburban does reopen, it will have to work to regain the trust of the communities it serves.
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