Ballot initiatives in five cities aim to lower costs

Facilities would be limited in how much they charge

Pledging to hold Stanford Health Care and other health care providers accountable for improving quality patient care while keeping costs under control, a health care workers union on Tuesday filed a November 2018 ballot initiative with the city of Palo Alto — its sixth action around the greater Bay Area in recent weeks.

The latest move by the Service Employees International Union — United Healthcare Workers West takes aim at Stanford Health Care’s flagship facility, Stanford University Medical Center, which is based in Palo Alto. But the union also filed initiatives last week in Emeryville, Livermore, Pleasanton and Redwood City where the company owns physicians clinics.

A ballot measure filed by the union in Watsonville is aimed at Watsonville Community Hospital, which is not affiliated with Stanford Health Care.

Under the proposed ballot measures, health care facilities in all six communities would be limited from charging patients more than 15 percent above the actual cost of providing care.

If passed, the measures — which would take effect Jan. 1, 2019 — would require a hospital, medical clinic or other provider to annually issue a rebate or reduced bill to a patient if it was determined that the patient was charged over the acceptable fee for those services.

The proposed initiative says that any entity that does not comply with the measure could face a civil misdemeanor charge and fines that are twice the amount of the rebate or reduction.

The title and summary of the ballot measures still must be approved by each city before signatures can be gathered, which is already happening in Watsonville.

“People who live and work in these communities should be able to go to their local hospital or clinic without fear that they’ll rack up huge bills or get sick at the same time,” Chuck Fonseca, a nursing assistant at Stanford University Medical Center, said in a statement.

Stanford Health Care issued a response saying it would be “disappointed if these efforts moved forward.’’

While they said they had not seen any of the language in the proposed ballot initiative, Stanford Health Care officials said that “all hospital charges reflect the complexities of the national healthcare system as well as multiple other factors ranging from local and regional market conditions to the level of care being provided.

“We take this seriously and we certainly want to respond on behalf of our patients and the communities we serve once we see the proposed language,’’ the Stanford Health Care statement said.

SEIU-UHW claims state records reveal Stanford University Medical Center charges considerably more than other hospitals in the Bay Area and California for the same services.

For example, the union said, the medical center charges nearly $73,000 more than the statewide average to treat a patient for alcohol or drug abuse, $60,000 more to treat a patient with kidney failure, and nearly $46,000 more to treat a patient with chest pain. The union said its figures were obtained from the California Office of Statewide Planning and Development.

The union’s latest action comes several months after Stanford Hospital union workers in July staged a rally alleging that patient and worker safety at the hospital is in jeopardy due to the risk of acquiring infections at the facility.

But Ann Weinacker, Stanford Health Care’s associate chief medical officer of patient care services, said in July that the union’s data is outdated and the hospital’s infection numbers actually have improved since 2014 and are currently better than the national benchmark.

More than 1,800 Stanford University Medical Center employees are members of SEIU-UHW.