U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin is calling upon the CEO of Ascension Health Joseph Impicciche to answer for questionable priorities that appear to go against its non-profit mission.
In a letter sent on Monday, Baldwin pointed to practices she said include squeezing staff, closing facilities, and extracting cash from its member hospitals for dubious “management fees” in order to advance its investment activities, putting patients and providers at risk.
Sheboygan’s Marsho Medical Center was closed by Ascension in October of 2021 on short notice, sending patients scrambling to find doctors after their physicians were locked out by a non-compete agreement. More recently Ascension closed the labor and delivery unit on Milwaukee’s south side at Ascension St. Francis, and raising concerns about patient safety due to long waits and delayed surgeries at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s.
In her letter, Baldwin is demanding the company’s CEO explain how it could fulfill its strict non-profit standards of providing health care to the poorest, while at the same time shuttering operations to increase profits in its bottom line.
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