Author: sherlockj
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New Antitrust Laws Promise Scrutiny of Virginia’s Healthcare Monopolies
by James C. Sherlock I have written here extensively on the necessity to enforce federal antitrust laws against the anticompetitive activities of some of Virginia’s regional healthcare monopolies. I am happy to report federal legislative changes from the past year that will strengthen the enforcement of those laws. First, the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and…
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The Business and Politics of Senior Care in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock We write here often about senior care, the companies that provide it and the politics around that business. It is useful to understand the continuum of care to make sure we also understand the different financial situations which companies in different parts of that industry find themselves and the way they…
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The Real Nursing Home Scandal in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock Mike Martz has written three excellent columns that have appeared in the Richmond Times Dispatch starting March 19. Headline of one: “Virginia tries to move ahead of national ‘reform agenda’ for nursing homes.” The gist of it was that a couple of national nursing home industry organizations have taken advantage of the…
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Rich Jurisdictions Vote with Their Feet on the Virginia Department of Health
by James C. Sherlock A couple of days ago Antonio Olivo broke a story in The Washington Post that told of a law permitting Loudoun and Prince William counties to form independent health departments. It awaits Governor Northam’s signature. Having seen the performance of the Department of Health during COVID, they have decided they cannot…
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Virginians’ Money and Our Tax-Exempt “Public Charity” Healthcare Monopolies
by James C. Sherlock A generally accepted rule of thumb for the minimum profitability required for a hospital to maintain operations and fund its future is 3%. Virginia’s community hospitals as a group in 2019 had an operating margin of 10%. Most of them are filed with federal and state governments as not-for-profit public charities…
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Medicaid and Medicaid Rate Increases Boost Virginia Hospital Profitability
by James C. Sherlock Virginia in 2018 both expanded Medicaid and increased Medicaid reimbursement rates. Those changes orchestrated by Virginia hospitals took effect in 2019 and resulted in a major financial windfall to those same hospitals. I have compared the 2018 and 2019 Hospitals Operating and Total Margins spreadsheets published by the state through…
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We Are Losing Sight of Public Health in Vaccination Debates
by James C. Sherlock We in the process of losing our collective minds. I read a story in the Roanoke Times by LuAnne Rife “One-third of Virginia’s long-term care workers declined COVID-19 vaccinations, as homes reopen to visitors.” We read other stories about teachers refusing vaccinations. They do it pointing to the fact that the…
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Troubled Governance at Sentara
by James C. Sherlock I have been studying and writing about Sentara Healthcare for 15 years. Sentara has during that time both expanded significantly and been mired in seemingly endless controversies regarding such widely reported issues as: its death grip on the COPN process and business practices, which together have strangled their much weaker competitors…
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An Important Challenge to Employees of the Commonwealth
by James C. Sherlock I ask the employees of the Commonwealth of Virginia to be agents for its positive change. I will address you directly. The issue is state readiness, or rather lack of it, for the COVID epidemic. You are in the best position to know that your agency was surprised and overwhelmed when COVID…
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Confessions of a Virginia Whistleblower
by James C. Sherlock I decided last week in a paroxysm of good citizenship to contact the Virginia Inspector General (IG) to report wrongdoing by state officials. I have a considerable list centered around the failure of many state officials to carry out their longstanding, formally-assigned duties pre-COVID to plan for a pandemic emergency and…
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Fairfax County School Board Has the Upper Hand – But Never Mind
by James C. Sherlock Just because I am interested and think you might be, I checked job satisfaction among the roughly 13,500 teachers in the employ of Fairfax County Public Schools — very few of whom have stood in front of live students in the last year. I did that the real way, not opinion…
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Social-Emotional Learning — We Are All Aboard for the Ride
by James C. Sherlock A new educational theory has been implemented while most were not looking. The educational-industrial complex is all-in on Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Behold the circle of life of that complex: Many education schools have for a very long time been producing “studies” under government grants awarded by ed school grads…
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A Hill for Children to Die On
by James C. Sherlock I was asked by Dick Sizemore: “As for social emotional learning (SEL), what specifically in that statement do you disagree with?” A serious question from a serious man. The answer is quoted from Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): Find the definition of the “process through which all young…
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The Soul of the University – Still Thinking
by James C. Sherlock The battle for the soul of the University of Virginia is on writes Jim Bacon, like me an alumnus. There is apparently only one fighter on the side of freedom of expression, reasoned debate and the maintenance of order as key foundations of academic freedom. That is the Board. University President…
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Fire State Officials Who Failed Us in COVID
by James C. Sherlock If senior members of the state bureaucracies escape accountability for their failures before and during COVID, the agency cultures won’t change and it will happen again. I am going to review below the extent of their written responsibilities for pandemic planning and the high quality planning support they were given…