I would like to congratulate the management of the two local hospital emergency departments for efficiently coordinating with Columbia United Providers so that people without primary medical doctors can get care without using the very costly resources at emergency rooms. This coordination can potentially save lives and certainly money.
It seems timely to take the Washington Health Care Authority to task for ignoring this efficiency and canceling the contract with Columbia United Providers, which helps 47,000 people annually with health care. The state has also told all the state’s hospitals that the Medicaid programs will not pay for many visits.
The state has certainly found an efficient way to make doctors, nurses and others leave the field they trained for.
In the best of times, caring for the health of the poor is a money-losing proposition. Totally cutting off funding to Columbia United Providers will force them to lay off many of their personnel.
