LOS ANGELES — California state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, has introduced legislation to make it more difficult to close non-profit hospitals that provide emergency services.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra already must approve the sale of non-profit hospitals, but healthcare companies are only required to give 90-day notice to the California Department of Public Health before closing a non-profit hospital, Skinner said Monday during a press conference in Oakland.
Senate Bill 687 would require California non-profit hospitals to obtain approval from the state's attorney general before closing hospitals that have emergency departments and require at least one public hearing about the planned closure.
"When hospitals and emergency rooms close, patients pay the price with longer wait times and decreased health outcomes," Skinner said.
In the Bay Area, she said, the 2015 closure of San Pablo's Doctors Medical Center left thousands of residents in West Contra Costa County with only one full service hospital, the 50-bed Kaiser Permanente Richmond Medical Center.
In Skinner's own district, nonprofit chain Sutter Health plans to close Berkeley's Alta Bates hospital by 2030.
Studies evaluating the impacts of hospital closures show that loss of hospital emergency departments increase the risk of death by 15% for patients in the affected area who have a stroke or heart attack, she said.
California has the fewest emergency departments per capita compared to other states, according to Skinner, who said the Legislature "needs to do everything it can to prevent hospital deserts and SB 687 is one tool to help us achieve that goal."
The state's rural areas have been particularly hard hit by the closures, according to Skinner, who said the Central Valley and rural regions north of Sacramento to the Oregon border have experienced more than a dozen hospital closures since the early 2000s.
"We have been grappling with how to stem the flow of hospital closures – and this bill would get at the issue," said Assemblymember Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, who offered to co-author the bill.
The loss of Doctor's Medical has tripled the visits to Kaiser Richmond, said Thurmond, whose Assembly District 15 includes Richmond, San Pablo and Berkeley.
"It has been proven that when hospitals with emergency rooms close, mortality rates go up in those regions," he said. "I want to thank Sen. Skinner for a smart and reasonable approach. We should treat non-profit hospital closures the same way we view the sale of a non-profit hospital."
The attorney general's office, under then-AG Kamala Harris, played in key role in the sale of the ailing Daughters of Charity Health System.
For-profit Prime Healthcare backed away from a deal in March 2015, citing conditions imposed by the AG's office. Ultimately the office approved the December 2015 sale of the six-hospital chain to hedge fund Blue Mountain Capital, which renamed the chain Verity Health System of California. Blue Mountain signed a management agreement with a 15-year option to purchase the chain and agreed to inject $250 million in financial support.
