Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
Rachell and Jon MacDougall’s joy in welcoming their newborn daughter Juliana on July 12 was dampened when the first-time father was asked to leave Maui Memorial Medical Center or pay $672 for a private room.
The hospital raised the price for a private room to $672 from $152 on July 1 when Maui Health System, a subsidiary of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, assumed control of operations of Maui Memorial, Kula Hospital & Clinic and Lanai Community Hospital in the largest privatization in state history. The former public hospitals were previously operated by the state-funded Hawaii Health Systems Corp.
“It was shocking. I can’t afford that on our budget. It’s impossible,” said Jon MacDougall, 30, who lives in Kihei. “I honestly felt like the worst husband in the world, leaving my wife and child there. I was almost in tears. We’re both new parents. It was our first child. At the very least I wanted to sit by her side.”
Health insurance doesn’t cover the cost of a private room because it is not medically necessary, and the hospital doesn’t allow spouses to stay overnight in shared rooms. If a new dad wants to stay with the mother, they have to get a private room. But with the July 1 price increase, that was out of reach for many fathers.
“The only reason (the hospital staff) could tell us it increased … was because of the Kaiser takeover,” MacDougall said. “It’s just crazy.”
Maui residents complained to Kaiser officials about the private room rate hike at a town hall meeting Tuesday, according to Mauinow.com. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser asked Kaiser about the price change Wednesday.
On Friday, Kaiser said it would put the rate increase on hold for six months. The delay will “allow time for families to budget if they want to choose this service,” said Chastell Ely, spokeswoman for the Maui hospitals. She didn’t say whether prices for other services at the Maui County facilities were increased under the private operator.
“We regret that this issue has caused concern for new moms and families and sincerely appreciate this being brought to the attention of hospital leadership. We agree that we should give pregnant mothers more time to plan for this change,” Ely said in an email. “It is our obligation to ensure that the private room rate actually covers the costs associated with using a double room as a single, private room. It is important for the long-term sustainability of the Maui Health System to ensure that our not-for-profit operations are well run, are as fairly priced and as affordable as we can make them, and all while we continue to deliver high-quality care.”
The hospital has not raised the price of shared rooms, she said.
Prohibitively costly
Kula resident Katie Folio gave birth to her first daughter nearly three years ago and paid about $150 for a private room at Maui Memorial so that her husband could stay overnight during the first moments of their newborn’s life. The 37-year-old, who is due Aug. 14 to give birth to her second child, was shocked when she found out that same private room would cost her more than four times as much.
“An alarming amount of people are really upset about this. It was already hard enough to get a private room, but it was still slightly doable. But $700 — that’s insane,” Folio said. “Only the top 1 percent are going to be able to afford that. I can’t fathom having this child and not having (my husband) stay. It breaks my heart.”
Nicole Skillern, a 36-year-old Makawao resident who is due to give birth in late September, also is concerned about the new policy.
“To be hit by this $600 ‘hotel fee’ is insane. I personally don’t know anybody who’s OK with paying that. It just seems sad to me. I don’t want to turn my husband away from his first night with his baby.”
Kaiser — both a health care provider and insurer — said it is committed to improving access to care in Maui County so that patients have the ability to get care where they live instead of having to be transferred to Honolulu hospitals.
It has promised to keep the facilities open to the public, including non-Kaiser members and doctors, and operate them as community hospitals, while significantly reducing the state’s burden to fund operating losses that have amounted to more than $30 million annually. The hospitals are the only acute-care facilities for about 200,000 residents and visitors on the Valley Isle.
Ely, the hospital spokeswoman, said Kaiser is working hard to “expand access to specialty care, promote health and well-being in schools and communities, and champion innovation and care improvement.”
During the transition to Kaiser, the company said it provided more than 700 support staff to help with training and new systems, including electronic medical records that allow providers to simultaneously view patient data in real time for better care coordination and patient safety.
The state’s largest health maintenance organization said it has also installed other back-end systems for finance, procurement and time management.
“Thirty days into the transition, we are focusing on making sure staff have the training on the new operating systems,” Ely said, adding that 97 percent of 1,500 former staff members accepted positions with Kaiser.
The company also hired 58 new registered nurses to support patient care, and 79 staff for administration, facilities, food services and other areas. However, there are 245 open positions that still need to be filled, she said.
Rachell MacDougall, 28, said her experience at the hospital left much to be desired.
“Literally, I didn’t see any changes in anything except for that price change, which is completely ridiculous,” she said. “They ran out of pads, towelettes, wipes. They said they were still in transition so they were out. There were definitely no improvements.”
79