Word: humanae
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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There is no question that Humana's financing will give the field of heart-implant research a major boost. Federal health care officials welcomed the company's plans. Said Carolyne Davis, chief of the Health Care Financing Administration, which directs the Medicare and Medicaid programs: "Given the country's limited health care dollars, it is important that we have medical research done in the private as well as the public sector...
Even so, some doctors believe that mixing the profit motive with the Hippocratic oath is a poor way to provide medical care. Dr. Arnold Relman, editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, criticizes companies like Humana, saying that they are "industrializing medical care" and are more interested in turning a profit than providing health services. Relman argues that the chains will eliminate necessary medical programs rather than take a loss on them...
...profit health care, says that so far he has not seen much difference between the behavior of commercial and nonprofit hospitals. Says he: "Hiring big names is good business and good academics. It's one way to achieve a certain luster. DeVries and the artificial heart give Humana legitimacy in the medical world and put its name before prospective patients. Nonprofit institutions have always done this...
There is some evidence to support this charge. Investor-owned hospital chains generally follow a policy of sending indigent patients to nearby community hospitals when possible. Humana Spokesman Robert Irvine points out that people who cannot pay are not turned away from the University of Louisville facility, but defends the right of the firm's other hospitals to refer indigents to nonprofit and community institutions. Says he: "We're paying money through our taxes to support those hospitals. Those being paid to do it should be the ones to handle...
While doctors and hospital administrators debate the ethics and merits of for-profit medical care, Wall Street considers it a good investment. John Hilde-long, an analyst for Dillon, Read, calls Humana an "attractive long-term" stock...