Common Types of Doctors and What They Do

This New DC-area Hospital Is A One-stop Shop For Women's Health Care

The goal of VHC Health's new Charlotte Stump Benjamin Center in Arlington is to make appointments and follow-ups easy and convenient for women.

The goal of the new Charlotte Stump Benjamin Center is to make appointments and follow-ups easy and convenient for women, said Dr. Kelly Orzechowski, the center's chief medical officer.

"A lot of times women are so busy caring for other loved ones that they don't actually prioritize their own health care," she said. "So, they're more likely to delay a mammogram and that can affect the quality of life and health care, if things are picked up late."

Health care centers for women only are a national trend that has reached the D.C. Area.

The center, located on the fifth floor of VHC Health's outpatient pavilion, is the first of its kind in the area that offers coordinated medical services for women only in one location, Orzechowski told WTOP. Dr. Kelly Orzechowski, the center's chief medical officer, speaks with guests during the grand opening ceremony. (Courtesy VHC Health)

During the pandemic, more than a dozen female doctors who represented a range of disciplines were able to craft their vision of a center that caters to women.

The team took the idea to the hospital's leadership in October last year and got swift approval.

"We were really looking at how we get care as physicians and how we deliver care to our patients," she said. "And we saw a lot of gaps. It made us communicate with each other and say, 'How can we do this better?'"

Orzechowski said the center also features small details that ease anxiety during exams and encourage women to continue coming back.

"We have gowns that actually fully cover you instead of the paper drapes that fall down when your doctor is walking in the room," she said. "I can't tell you how often I care for patients who say that they have felt dismissed and not heard."

Houston's United Memorial Medical Center To Pay $2 Million For Overbilling COVID-19 Tests, Health Care Programs

A woman is taken on a stretcher by healthcare professionals into the United Memorial Medical Center after going through testing for COVID-19 Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Houston. People were lined up in their cars in a line that stretched over two miles to be tested in the drive-thru testing for coronavirus.

United Memorial Medical Center this week agreed to pay $2 million after allegedly overbilling the government for COVID-19 tests and government health care programs, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The medical center that formerly operated a number of Houston hospitals garnered national headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic after becoming a symbol of health care workers and their responses to the rapidly spreading COVID-19 infection. The relatively unknown hospital system was the first to offer free drive-thru testing and partnered with the city to operate and expand testing sites across Houston, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Now the once-expansive medical center is under fire after allegedly double-billing the government on federal programs and COVID-19 tests. The settlement will be paid in full by Ravishanker Mallapuram, one of the medical center's principals.

"Hospitals and other providers who participate in federal health care programs have an obligation to the taxpayers to ensure they are billing appropriately," Brian Boynton, head of the Department of Justice's civil division said. "We will hold accountable those who knowingly overbill or double bill for the medical services they provide to federal beneficiaries."

The settlement resolves allegations that the medical center submitted claims for cost outlier payments by rapidly increasing its charges for inpatient care and underreporting its charges on Medicare cost reports, according to the Department of Justice. By doing so, the group prevented the government health care programs from adjusting charges to reasonably reflect the center's actual costs.

The agreement resolves a lawsuit that was originally brought forward by a former UMMC employee, who'll be given $300,000 for reporting allegations of the medical center's billing scheme.

"We depend upon medical providers to be good stewards of a community's healthcare services and of the federally funded programs that pay for those services," Alamdar S. Hamdani, U.S. Attorney said in a statement.

"UMMC made millions by overbilling those health care programs and intentionally double billing for COVID-19 testing," he said. "Instead of returning those monies to America's taxpayers, they pocketed the money for themselves."

Employee-owned Bridges Health 'proud' Of National Top 100 Listing

Brett Coble speaks at the 2023 Bridges Health ESOP meeting. The Oklahoma-based company is among the few long-term health care companies in the U.S. To offer an employee stock ownership plan. (Courtesy Photo)

Oklahoma-based Bridges Health landed on the National Center for Employee Ownership's 2023 top 100 list. The company manages 37 skilled nursing, long-term care and therapy facilities with more than 2,500 employees across the state.

"We are extremely proud to be named one of the top 100 employee-owned companies in the country, especially just three years into our employee ownership journey," said Brett Coble, Bridges Health president and CEO. "We were pleasantly surprised to receive that recognition."

Bridge Health is one of two Oklahoma employee-owned companies recognized by NCEO this year. NCEO reports Oklahoma has 70 ESOPs with 43,533 participants.

Homeland, Oklahoma's largest locally owned grocery chain with 31 locations and 3,100 employees statewide, also made the list. It has been employee-owned since 2012.

The list features dozens of supermarkets and engineering, architecture and construction companies but only four companies in the post-acute, long-term care sector.

Of the 6,467 businesses with employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) in the United States, 20% are manufacturing companies but only 2% are health care and social assistance companies, according to the most recent data from NCEO.

"It's a unique ownership model (for nursing homes). It's really been a delight to see our employee owners embrace that," Coble said.

An ESOP is an employee benefit that gives workers ownership interest in the company in the form of shares of stock.

Bridges Health launched its ESOP in December 2020. Employees pay nothing to participate in the program. Their shares are held in a trust and a company-funded stock contribution is made to their retirement plan each year. When they retire or resign, the company "buys back" the shares. Employees are fully vested in the plan after six years of employment. Leaving sooner means leaving money behind.

In a market where many health care providers are vying for the same limited number of workers, Coble said the benefit is a great recruitment and retention tool.

"We absolutely attribute our success in recruiting and retaining workers to the ESOP model and our culture in general," Coble said. "We hope it will continue to help us not just in the workforce arena, but it will allow us to continue to improve quality."

Employee owners take pride in their work and are rewarded with an additional retirement benefit for delivering quality care, he said.

A 2020 study conducted by the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and the Employee Ownership Foundation found that employee-owned companies outperformed other companies in job retention, pay, and workplace health safety throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study found that ESOP companies were 3 to 4 times more likely to retain staff and significantly less likely to make pay cuts (27% vs. 57.3%).

In a 2023 study conducted by NCEO with the support of the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA), employee-owned companies reported voluntary quit rates of roughly one-third of the national average. Add the study found that employee owners have, on average, more than double the retirement savings (median ESOP account balance of $80,500) compared to non-ESOP counterparts (median of $30,000).

"The evidence continues to show that employee-owned businesses and their employees are faring better than most, positioning them to better withstand the challenges of a volatile economy," ESCA President and CEO Stephanie Silverman said in the survey report. "As business leaders prepare for possible economic uncertainty ahead, ESOP-owned private firms offer a compelling model for positioning workers and companies alike."

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