St. Vincent's HealthCare sees more than 40,000 patients a year, but maintaining care levels it and other health care companies provide will be influenced by Medicare and Medicaid billing protocols, said St. Vincent's CEO Moody Chisholm.
He said care is provided based on a patient's individual needs, but hospitals are reimbursed based on diagnosis.
"We are paid $3,000 for pneumonia, even if the cost of care was $10,000. We absorb the additional cost," he told members and guests of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville on Monday.
He served as the group's keynote speaker for its weekly meeting.
St. Vincent's treats many patients each year who are not covered by government or private insurance.
"The uninsured are an important part of the care we provide to the community," said Chisholm.
Another challenge facing health care is transitioning from treating illness to helping educate patients about ways to adopt a healthy lifestyle and prevent illness, he said. Helping seniors remain independent also is an issue facing the health care industry.
"They want to stay in their homes instead of living in a nursing home," Chisholm said.
An aging population is creating new facets of health care. Chisholm said dementia is one of the fastest-growing diagnoses.
"There was $215 billion spent on treatment of dementia last year. That's more than heart disease and cancer combined," he said.
Chisholm provided a few more statistics about St. Vincent's.
He said 3,300 babies were born there last year and more than 120,000 people visited the emergency room.
The hospital employs more than 5,000 people and has affiliate agreements with about 40 primary care and specialty physician groups in North Florida.
"We used 2 million pairs of examination gloves and dispensed 3.7 million doses of medications last year," Chisholm said.
The not-for-profit health care system represents a significant local economic impact in addition to employing thousands of people.
"We have contracts with more than 14,000 vendors. A lot of people get business from St. Vincent's HealthCare," said Chisholm.
He cited the Rotary Club's donation of St. Vincent's mobile clinic, a fully equipped doctor's office on wheels that was the club's service project in honor of its centennial anniversary in 2012.
Chisholm said since the unit was dedicated, 31,000 medical services have been delivered to 15,000 people.
Fifty-six percent of those patients were children living in low-income households, Chisholm said.
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