Ascension is locked in a legal battle with an Austin agency over whether poor patients are actually getting the care they're entitled to.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/02/ascension-texas-central-health-lawsuit/
2 replies (most recent on top)
"But Daddy doesn't Ascension claim to help the poor and vulnerable?"
Local officials in Austin, Texas promised twelve years ago that if voters approved millions of dollars in new property taxes, it would be a win-win. The city would get a brand-new medical school and teaching hospital, and low-income people would get more health care services.
It was a novel strategy to circumvent the state legislature and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars through a local agency called a hospital district. Sort of like a school district, it’s charged with spending local tax dollars, and has a legal responsibility to provide health care services for the poor.
My investigation found that the hospital district in Travis County, where Austin is, allowed the University of Texas at Austin to use the money for administrative costs at the medical school, without providing direct health care services for poor patients. Instead, UT’s health clinics are charging the county for millions extra for actual medical services. And UT belongs to the second-richest university system in the country, thanks to the state’s oil money.
The agency’s problems with provision of care for the poor don’t stop with the medical school, either. Its partnership with one of the country’s largest Catholic health systems, Ascension, has devolved into an ugly legal battle and resulted in less care for poor patients.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/02/dc-diagnosis-texas-dell-medical-school/