No. of Recommendations: 5
I'm late to this thread, but the mention of HCA as an example of the financialization of hospitals triggered my need to complain about the company. Not too long ago HCA bought the only hospital in my city, Asheville, NC. The nonprofit that ran it before seemed to do a good job and the hospital was well regarded, but the corp was starved for funds as they tried to build a needed expansion. NC's refusal to expand Medicaid didn't help, so the non-profit sold the hospital and affiliated businesses to HCA who promised to keep up the good level of care while delivering efficiencies from their large purchasing volume etc ...
It's been a disaster and I've personally seen a drastic drop in quality of care. Nurses are so understaffed/overworked that they quit in droves. I could go on, but suffice to say, I hate HCA for materially reducing the quality of healthcare in my city to boost their profits.