TMA Members on Health Care Law: Still Looking for the Right Prescription

CHICAGO, April 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six out of 10 turnaround professionals surveyed this month in a Turnaround Management Association poll think the nation's new health care law will have a negative impact on the economic recovery. Of those, just over 35 percent foresee a moderate negative impact and a quarter of those polled predict a significant negative impact of the law that has provoked strident protest in some quarters and elicited sighs of relief in others.

"While the actual implementation of key sections of the bill will not take place for months or years, the perception of its impact may be the real near-term drag on the economy," said James B. Shein, professor of management and strategy at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

The majority of respondents think the law will create a staggering future tax burden, inflate the deficit and toss physicians and other health care providers out of work. A few noted that the law, which guarantees health care insurance for tens of millions of Americans in the years to come, lacks measures to reduce health care costs.

"The national health care law was very outcome driven, but ignores the real problem: cutting costs and reducing Medicare's trillion dollar growth," said Michael L. Sandnes, managing director of health care at Executive Sounding Board Associates in Baltimore.

However, some argue that lack of access to health insurance already creates financial calamities.

"Hospitals are encountering lower patient volume," said Michael Imber, a director at Grant Thornton LLP in New York. "People are deferring health care attention due to lack of insurance, which can result in more acute needs later as their condition deteriorates and they become even more costly to the overall system."

Only 14 percent of those surveyed think the law will have a moderate positive impact on the economic recovery and seven percent expect no impact. Just under 20 percent said they are not sure.

"Experience shows government regulation tends to increase rather than decrease costs," said William J. Hass, CTP, chief executive officer of TeamWork Technologies in Northbrook, Illinois.

Health care is on the slate of panel topics at TMA's Spring Conference, April 20-22, at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers.  Chicago-based Turnaround Management Association, www.turnaround.org, is the premier international non-profit association dedicated to corporate renewal and turnaround management and has more than 9,000 members in 46 regional chapters.

SOURCE Turnaround Management Association

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