Doctor says revenue woes led to firing

On Tuesday, one of the few doctors in the area who serves underinsured patients received a letter from Danville Regional Medical Center informing him that after 14 years, his services were no longer required. Two days later, he officially lost his job.

“I wish I could say I understand it,” Dr. Phillip Hale said Thursday. “It seems to be driven by (the hospital’s) bottom line mentality without really looking at the big picture.”

Hale said Family Healthcare Center on Piney Forest Road where he practiced was losing money and he believes that led to the termination of his contract.

But as one of the only practices in Danville open to Medicaid patients, Hale said he feels it is a necessary community asset.

Most private practices don’t accept Medicaid patients because the payout doctors receive from those patients is “very small,” Hale said.

He said the center could only operate because of the effective subsidy from the hospital.

Danville Regional Medical Center declined to comment on why they decided to fire Hale or whether or not they anticipate any more cutbacks.

“At Danville Regional Medical Center, we value all of our patients and want to assure them they will continue to receive high-quality care at the Family Healthcare Center,” Leslie Smith, director of marketing and community relations for Danville Regional, said in a written response. “Patients will continue to be seen by a physician and nurse practitioner.”

When Danville Regional was a not-for profit hospital, it didn’t seem to have a problem with the arrangement, Hale said. It was after it was sold to LifePoint Hospitals Inc. in 2005, the changes started coming, he said.

“A clerk here, a nurse there,” Hale said.

Hale believes the financial changes didn’t just stop with hirings and firings.

Hale said since he focused on preventative care with most of his Medicaid patients, it wasn’t necessarily a good thing for the hospital’s revenue intake.

“If I took care of their blood pressure and sugar, they wouldn’t be going to the emergency room,” Hale said. “They wouldn’t be getting sick enough to be admitted to the hospital.

“When we do that, the hospital actually loses more money.”

Hale said because so many doctors have recently left the area, he’s pretty sure he’ll be able to find another job. Still, he’s quite dismayed by Danville Regional’s decision.

“I think it goes back to when the decision was made to sell to a for-profit hospital,” Hale said. “The writing was on the wall then.”

Contact Sarah Arkin at sarkin@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7983.