Clifford Barnes, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice in the Washington, D.C., and New York offices, was featured in an article about how the D.C. Council mulls exit strategy of operating United Medical Center.

The article discussed that throughout the saga of D.C.'s takeover of United Medical Center, politicians and health care experts all focus on the same point: What's the exit strategy? Though the D.C. Council has supported the takeover, and Attorney General Peter Nickles calls the city's only hospital east of the Anacostia River "the highest priority" for the Fenty administration, all parties say D.C.'s hospital ownership should be temporary.

Barnes stated that with new insurance, patients will now have choices, and there's no reason to assume they and their doctors will chose United Medical Center, which in spite of recent improvements remains a very poor brand. Health reform in general is injecting uncertainty throughout the industry, and it's going to make hospitals more risk averse.

He continued to state that even if finances are audited, and the cash flow situation improves, the fundamental economics of inner-city hospitals remain very unfavorable.

"In the best of times, the inner-city hospitals are tough to run. And these are not going to be the best of times. These are going to be transitional times, so the challenges are going to be more intense," Barnes said.

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.