Merced Sun-Star
MODESTO -- The Kaiser Modesto Medical Center, which opens to patients Wednesday, is certain to have an impact on health care in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
It positions the nation's largest nonprofit health system to increase its membership in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, where 261,000 people are covered by Kaiser insurance.
Adding a third full-service hospital to Modesto will create more competition in the health care marketplace. It could reduce crowding in hospital emergency rooms as well.
Kaiser is opening the Dale Road hospital with 112 private rooms, a birthing center, high-tech surgical suites and a 24-bay emergency department. The hospital can be expanded to 224 beds and is connected to a medical office support wing with specialty services and 24-hour urgent care.
"We positioned it in north Modesto because we felt the bulk of our membership growth is in north Modesto and southern San Joaquin County," said Corwin Harper, senior vice president and Central Valley area manager for Kaiser.
"We envision we will get some membership growth," he said.
"There was a wish among our membership for a full-service hospital in the community so they don't have to drive out of the community."
The new center is different from traditional hospitals, which accept most insurance and government health coverage and treat anyone who comes to the emergency room.
Kaiser hospitals are primarily for people covered by Kaiser health plans. Consequently, not everyone applauded when Kaiser announced plans in 2002 to build the Modesto hospital.
Insurance benefit possible Critics said the hospital would take employees from its competitors, drive up health care labor costs and wouldn't care for Medi-Cal patients or people without insurance.
Others believe the hospital's impact will be mostly positive. In the short term, the added competition could serve to stabilize health insurance rates in this area, said Tom Moore, a senior consultant for the California Health Care Coalition, which represents the interests of employers and unions that buy health insurance.
Because Kaiser will be in a better position to expand membership, other insurers such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be careful about raising rates, he said.
"There should be some leveling off of insurance rate increases," Moore said, adding the effect will be temporary. "Competition plays a small role over time."
Kaiser has heard complaints from employers and union groups in California regarding its steep rate increases in recent years and has said it is going to be pulling back, the coalition said.
Barney Hale, executive director of the Modesto Teachers Association, is hoping that happens.
Teachers in Modesto City Schools and at least one other district are facing double-digit increases from UnitedHealth-Pacificare next year. The increases will eat further into teachers' paychecks, which have flattened because of state's budget trouble.
Hale hopes to see more reasonable proposals when insurers, including Kaiser, submit bids to Modesto City Schools in the spring.
"We have had discussions with Kaiser and they are interested in buying access to our employees," he said. "I think Kaiser will be more attractive to teachers because the hospital is there."
The new hospital doesn't have all of the services offered by Kaiser's competitors in Modesto, Doctors Medical Center and Memorial Medical Center.
As an example, Kaiser heart patients who need angioplasty or surgery will be referred to Dameron Hospital in Stockton or a heart surgery center in San Francisco.
