Leader Staff
Costs will go up in January for patients of Shawano Medical Center and those visiting four other ThedaCare hospitals in the region.
ThedaCare’s Board of Directors this week approved a 3 percent hospital rate increase for SMC, Appleton Medical Center, New London Family Medical Center, and Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah. Rates for Riverside Medical Center in Waupaca will increase by 2.5 percent.
The new rates are effective Jan. 1.
The average state price increase for 2014 is 4.97 percent, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
ThedaCare CEO and President Dr. Dean Gruner said the price increase is modest and represents efforts to eliminate redunadancies and improve the way hospital staff members take care of patients.
He said those efforts have kept costs under control.
“As everyone knows, health care is going through many changes, but through that chaos ThedaCare is a leader when it comes to cost containment,” Gruner said. “We continue to find ways to take unnecessary steps out of delivering care to our patients that not only improve the care we provide, but also lowers costs.
Gruner said ThedaCare has received national attention for its participation in a pilot Medicare Accountable Care Organization that has kept costs down while improving care for Medicare patients.
“We also know there is still more room for improvement and we continue to look for ways to control costs,” he said.
Gruner noted that in the past five years, rates rose 14.64 percent at Appleton Medical Center, Theda Clark and New London Family Medical Center; 15.65 percent at Riverside Medical Center; and 14.0 percent at Shawano Medical Center, which, he said, showed ThedaCare’s consistent and predictable cost restraint.