U Maryland USACS takeover

[WhatJobDoIPick]

Anyone have the scoop on this?

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[NYEMMED]

Along the same lines.. USACS just lost all of their Charlotte area contracts. The whole market pulled out from them.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

Anyone have the scoop on this?

Boo one of my best friends from residency works at Mercy Medical Center. Hopefully he doesn’t have to work for that outfit now.

 

[alpinism]

I have a bunch of friends that used to work at UM and interviewed with them back in 2018 for a faculty position.

For those not aware UM has the main hospital campus in downtown Baltimore and several community affiliates throughout the state including the main trauma center for the DC suburbs at prince george's county hospital. The hospitals were all staffed by the UM physician's group which basically was a nonprofit ED group that basically had the contract to run all of the EDs within the University of Maryland. The EDs all serve traditionally poor and minority populations and have terrible insurance reimbursement which has now worsened due to recent CMS cuts. Predictably the UM leadership has chosen to completely neglect the EDs with severe underfunding and understaffing which has led to them becoming the worst in the entire country for wait times and patient boarding. Lots of stories of sepsis patients that can wait 3-6 hrs to be seen while in a chair without a nurse. As a result there has been a mass exodus of the physicians at community sites over the past few years and the physician group had to resort to paying locums roughly 300/hr to cover all the shifts. Despite that due to everything above they apparently still had lots of trouble with staffing their departments which has led to UM deciding to give the ED contract to USACS.

 

[BoardingDoc]

I have a bunch of friends that used to work at UM and interviewed with them back in 2018 for a faculty position.

For those not aware UM has the main hospital campus in downtown Baltimore and several community affiliates throughout the state including the main trauma center for the DC suburbs at prince george's county hospital. The hospitals were all staffed by the UM physician's group which basically was a nonprofit ED group that basically had the contract to run all of the EDs within the University of Maryland. The EDs all serve traditionally poor and minority populations and have terrible insurance reimbursement which has now worsened due to recent CMS cuts. Predictably the UM leadership has chosen to completely neglect the EDs with severe underfunding and understaffing which has led to them becoming the worst in the entire country for wait times and patient boarding. Lots of stories of sepsis patients that can wait 3-6 hrs to be seen while in a chair without a nurse. As a result there has been a mass exodus of the physicians at community sites over the past few years and the physician group had to resort to paying locums roughly 300/hr to cover all the shifts. Despite that due to everything above they apparently still had lots of trouble with staffing their departments which has led to UM deciding to give the ED contract to USACS.

I know usucks is good at trying to squeeze blood from a stone, but there has to be something more to this deal for it to make sense for them to even want to takeover the contract, as this doesn't seem like there are coffers to be plundered.

 

[NYEMMED]

USACS has a model that they try to take whole systems or whole markets, cut pay, use their internal locums as needed, and place APPs everywhere to reduce costs

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

USACS has a model that they try to take whole systems or whole markets, cut pay, use their internal locums as needed, and place APPs everywhere to reduce costs

Yes but practically why would USACS even want these contracts? If it’s truly a horrendous payor mix and requires locums staffing to cover that sounds like the worst possible contract to take in terms of costs/returns.

Unless UM is planning to give USACS a subsidy?

 

[Mbekweni]

So does this mean my favorite EM Cardiology mentor Amal Mattu is a free agent? He has a very prominent social media and lecture circuit presence. Will be interesting to see.

ECG Weekly – Mastering ECG interpretation to save and improve more lives.

ecgweekly.com

Mattu, Amal | University of Maryland School of Medicine

www.medschool.umaryland.edu

 

[EMhawkeye]

Does he work at

So does this mean my favorite EM Cardiology mentor Amal Mattu is a free agent? He has a very prominent social media and lecture circuit presence. Will be interesting to see.

ECG Weekly – Mastering ECG interpretation to save and improve more lives.

ecgweekly.com

https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/profiles/mattu-amal/[/URL

Doesn’t he work at the big mothership? This refers to the community sites

 

[NYEMMED]

Yes but practically why would USACS even want these contracts? If it’s truly a horrendous payor mix and requires locums staffing to cover that sounds like the worst possible contract to take in terms of costs/returns.

Unless UM is planning to give USACS a subsidy?

You take the contract at a loss. After a year or two passes you ask for a subsidy, and use your foothold in the area to try and get more nearby sites

 

[thegenius]

Yes but practically why would USACS even want these contracts? If it’s truly a horrendous payor mix and requires locums staffing to cover that sounds like the worst possible contract to take in terms of costs/returns.

Maybe they will staff the ERs with 3/4 PA's and 1/4 docs. They will find a way to suck profit out of the system and make doctors even more outraged.

 

[EctopicFetus]

S
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THATS the answer… if they were paying locums 300 and market was less i think around 220-230.. they will fix it and wait for the glut of docs to become real and then with their monopoly slash pay and too many people are stuck in the area.. This is a recipe for success. Losing atrium hurt them bad. They crashed that market but now someone else gets much of the benefit. Was a big contract for them.

 

[FlaminHotER]

F. C. U. K. USUCKS!

Such a God awful and corrupt company

I can’t wait for them to get their note called by Apollo in 2026

 

[EctopicFetus]

ON Em docs they must have asked for their loyalists to post. its hilarious.. They are gonna go down in a ball of flames. Just gonna take some time. Losing the atrium contract hurts them.. thats a big loss that cost them nothing to get..

 

[Kryptocoin]

THATS the answer… if they were paying locums 300 and market was less i think around 220-230.. they will fix it and wait for the glut of docs to become real and then with their monopoly slash pay and too many people are stuck in the area.. This is a recipe for success. Losing atrium hurt them bad. They crashed that market but now someone else gets much of the benefit. Was a big contract for them.

This. Once you buy the big doctor house and kids are in school........geographic handcuffs.

 

[BulgeDaTwine]

Here to tell folks that while you might think that USACS (and all private equity) is the devil — and you’re not wrong — Academics is just a smilier, Big Bad Wolf taking even more of your hard earned dollars.

Community ER is rapacious.

Academic ER is exploitive.

Pick your poison. The root evil is the American healthcare system that has allowed these healthcare executives and fat cat university leaders to exploit ER docs.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Here to tell folks that while you might think that USACS (and all private equity) is the devil — and you’re not wrong — Academics is just a smilier, Big Bad Wolf taking even more of your hard earned dollars.

Community ER is rapacious.

Academic ER is exploitive.

Pick your poison. The root evil is the American healthcare system that has allowed these healthcare executives and fat cat university leaders to exploit ER docs.

No disagreement. Look at how the “academic” institutions have bought up community EDs to expand their footprint. Their mission is not academic but rather financial. This is true at U Maryland, Indiana, Vanderbilt etc. Others sold out to other entities like Banner (Arizona). They push their community service nonsense all while fattening up their wallets and abusing EM docs.