POSTED BY aaron Feb 03, 2007
Yay for the human condition.
One of the largest gifts to a medical center ever was just announced in our fair city. T. Denny Sanford of First PREMIER Bank and PREMIER Bankcard Inc is donating $400M to Sioux Valley Hospitals & Health System.
The gift will further propel Sioux Falls as a key player in health care and medical research. Early commentary compares the new initiatives to those of renowned institutions like the Mayo Clinic.
This announcement promises to have a huge impact on the area’s economy, culture, and health.
In the spirit of full disclosure, both PREMIER and Sioux Valley, now Sanford Health, are Electric Pulp clients. We would have been excited all the same were they not - healthiness is good.
Update: Paul Ten Haken, former pulpster and current Director of Marketing (Regional system) for Sanford Health, writes about the gift here.
February 4th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Sanford Health…
$400M donation to propel Sioux Falls Health System into leading health research role.
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February 6th, 2007 at 9:19 am
I think what happened here is great, but I’m looking for a secondary effect: an end to the Hospital Wars. For those not from around here, the two hospital systems in Sioux Falls — Avera McKennan and the former Sioux Valley — have been in an epic arms race. The level of facility construction alone between these two is staggering. Their campuses are sprawling outwards in a never-ending race to take over the city. I would offer that both campuses have been under significant construction perpetually for 15 years.
The benefit of this is that Sioux Falls is the most formidably hospitaled city in the world, I think. I heard once that we have the hospital system of a city three times our size, which I believe. The level of health care available in Sioux Falls is amazing.
Yet health care expenses are out of control. I used to work in corporate IT, with a nice, cushy health plan. Now I’m self-employed at a small company not yet at the dizzying heights of success and domination that Electric Pulp has achieved, and so I have to buy health insurance on the open-market. It’s expensive and the coverage is narrow.
My wife and I added it up once. The monthly health and dental expenses that used to be covered under a $180-month payroll deduction now cost us $1,100 per month. Out of pocket. And every July, my premiums go up. Last July they went up 15%. At that rate, they double in five years.
Worse, my deductible is $5,000. Per person. In Spring 2005, we were not yet aware my daughter was allergic to peanuts. Consequently, we fed her what turned out to be an $8,000 peanut butter sandwich (my out-of-pocket cost, mind you — insurance kicked in maybe $3,000).
Contrast this to when I worked in the corporate world and I had emergency gallbladder surgery. The bill was $21,000. The only thing not covered were the little rubber-soled socks they gave me every day. A buck seventy-five a day times six days equals the happiest I’ve ever been to write a check for $10.50.
My point is that health care is expensive, though most people are totally insulated through nice group health plans. I’m not, which leads me back to my point that I would like the Hospital Wars to end so money can start going towards what I think is the most important goal in the world right now: lowering the price of health care.
Mr. Sanford has dropped the atomic bomb of the Hospital Wars, and I congratulate him for it. So can the facilities race be over now? If McKennan gets the urge to build a new building, can they just…not? Can they instead take the money and plow it back into their operating budget to subsidize the unbelievable cost of hospital care? From my perspective, having more reasonable rates is more prestigious than having a new building.
But that’s just me.
August 7th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Insurance Quotes…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…