DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 10-30-06 A 9 CDB 10/27/2006 11:54 AM Page 1 October 30, 2006 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Page 9 MARY KRAMER: Paper making waves as it turns 70 Sam Logan is mad. But the sub- Other news media There are other DMC, WSU boards set win. Multi-layered financial pack- ject of his ire might surprise people have since picked up on changes, too. Its editor- ages are often used to recruit the who assume the publisher of one of the story, but it was ial page is open to opin- an important meeting best and brightest. The Chronicle and Lo- the country’s oldest African-Amer- ions from Republicans This week, the boards of Wayne Detroit is competing with acade- ican newspapers would automati- gan’s commentaries and Democrats. Last State University and The Detroit mic medical centers around the cally support business contracts that got there first. week, for example, An- Medical Center will meet. It’s an country. awarded to minority-owned firms. Next month, The drew McLemore Jr. important meeting. Our Focus So let’s hope the meeting this Since August, Logan has been Chronicle will celebrate touted the virtues of package starting on Page 11 sum- week will push a resolution to the writing front page commentaries its 70th anniversary Republican Dick De- contract dispute between Wayne marizes some possible outcomes in The Michigan Chronicle chal- with a big bash on Nov. Vos. Last spring, The State’s School of Medicine and the should these two “divorce.” lenging the Detroit Public Schools’ 10 at the Roostertail. A Chronicle began repub- DMC. decision in late July to yank a con- special anniversary lishing Crain’s stories If Detroit loses its strong core tract from Detroit-based Com- edition will hit the about Detroit and mi- base that links researchers and Mary Kramer is publisher of puware Corp. and award the com- streets on Nov. 15. nority business. medical faculty to the DMC hospi- Crain's Detroit Business. Her weekly puter and technology services The paper’s publisher is just a Being in the heart of a big contro- tals, plenty of other regions will take on the latest business news airs work to a consortium of very couple of years older than the pa- versy is not a bad way for a newspa- step up to bat. at 6:40 a.m. Mondays on the Paul W. small, mostly Detroit-based minor- per itself, but it seems he is getting per to celebrate a birthday. Happy Medical faculty are as hot as Smith show on WJR AM 760. E-mail ity-owned companies. feistier in his commentaries. anniversary, Michigan Chronicle. baseball stars after a World Series her at [email protected]. In his columns, Logan raised questions about the size and capaci- ty of the minority firms and sug- INSIGHT gested that a consultant to the win- ning bidders had an inside track because he had worked with Detroit Superintendent Bill Coleman in RESOURCES Dallas and San Francisco. The same consultant is the subject of a crimi- nal fraud investigation in connec- KNOWLEDGE tion with contracts award to IT ven- dors in Dallas. INNOVATION LETTERS CONTINUED VALUE ■ From Page 8 Save the mourning doves Editor: ADVICE There’s absolutely no good rea- son to shoot mourning doves in Michigan. EXPERIENCE Our “Official Bird of Peace” (House Resolution 244, May 25, 1998) is not overpopulated, and not a nuisance or a health threat to LEADERSHIP anyone. Even the Department of Natural Resources sees no signifi- cant economic growth from shoot- ing this beloved songbird. More lawyers included in Crain’s has miscalled this one Best Lawyers, (Letters: “Save hunters’ rights,” Oct. 23). Only a “no” vote on Pro- Chambers USA, posal 3 makes sense. Joyce Janicki and Super Lawyers St. Clair Shores than any Michigan firm. Keep hunting cash here Editor: I am responding to the letter you WISDOM published from Donald Garlit op- posing Proposal 3 based in large part on the study he co-authored on the economic impact of dove TECHNOLOGY hunting (Letters, “Dove season no help to economy,” Oct. 16). An old economics professor I once had + SOLUTIONS said that numbers are like people LAW — if you torture them enough, they’ll tell you anything. IT’S MORE THAN JUST THE LAW. What the study conveniently ig- nored was the most basic economic consideration; when people engage At Miller Canfield, it’s about taking a real in outdoor recreation, they spend interest in your needs and having the expertise money. According to the Ohio De- and resources to fulfill them. It’s caring about partment of Natural Resources, your business and building a real partnership. Ohio has an estimated 50,000 morn- ing dove hunters that spend an av- It’s about looking ahead. Thinking creatively. erage of $37 per hunting day. Like Achieving success. Most of all, it's about you. Garlit, I also have an MBA from the University of Michigan, but it was in grade school that I learned that 50,000 times $37 equals an economic impact. I took my two kids dove hunting last month in Ohio. We drove down in the morning, got break- fast at a small restaurant, bought shotgun shells and some supplies MICHIGAN • NEW YORK • FLORIDA • CANADA • POLAND WWW.MILLERCANFIELD.COM from the sporting goods store, had See Letters, Page 22 DBpageAD.qxd 10/23/2006 2:48 PM Page 1 CANCER IS ON A MISSION SO ARE WE. The enemy is cancer. And no other hospital in Michigan is prepared to fight it like the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center. Every form of cancer, at every stage. Each patient at Karmanos is diagnosed and treated by an entire team whose only focus, day in and day out, is treating one specific form of cancer: yours. Here, patients receive a team opinion at the most critical point of beating the disease — before treatment begins. And our standing as a nationally recognized cancer research center means our patients have vital access to some of the most innovative and customized treatments available. No single doctor…no local area hospital…has invested so much into beating your cancer. When the diagnosis is cancer, bring the fight to us. Ask your doctor for a referral or contact us yourself. Cancer is on a mission. So are we. Call 1-800-KARMANOS or visit www.karmanos.org DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 10-30-06 A 11 CDB 10/27/2006 10:03 AM Page 1 October 30, 2006 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Page 11 A CONVERSATION WITH Specialized care Henry Ford Health System CEO Nancy Schlichting is overseeing a move to offer more customer service, amenities to patients. Jeff Lutz, Page 14. Deloitte & Touche health care Crain’s reporter Michelle Martinez spoke with Jeff Lutz, a principal in WHERE THE MONEY GOES health care life sciences at Detroit Medical Center President and CEO Deloitte & Touche USA L.L.P. in Mike Duggan says that the DMC is giving away Detroit about the challenges and too much to the Wayne State physicians, while opportunities facing Detroit’s the Wayne State physicians say a contract that hospital systems. dates to 1998 and patient loads heavy with the uninsured make their reimbursement fees All of Detroit’s hospital systems seem low compared to other physician groups. to be doing better financially than they have in years. What trends might Here’s the breakdown of the current deal: be at work? These are good times Michael Duggan, Robert Mentzer, president and CEO, Can this dean, for hospitals all over the nation. The American Hospital Association just Detroit Medical Wayne State Total contract worth: announced that last year was the Center Medical School most profitable in the industry’s history, with an average profit $88 million margin of over 5 percent. $4.2 million of this goes to support residency The word on the street is that Blue programs. The rest is distributed to Wayne Cross Blue Shield of Michigan may State physician practice groups. have given some rate relief to several systems as well. marriage But our hospitals in metro Detroit DMC/Wayne State are also better-managed and -run than elsewhere in the nation. I’m all over the country, and you simply teaching agreement: don’t find the talent in the hospital industry that you have here. Talent wins over all. $39 million Given Southeast Michigan’s be saved? Consists of faculty compensation. The economic worries, are the good teaching agreement includes direct graduate times over? With all the corporate medical education reimbursements from issues in Southeast Michigan, Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue first-dollar health insurance is Shield of Michigan. going away, and hospitals will need Dispute highlights DMC’s, to worry about the uninsured and “underinsured.” But great Undercompensated and hospitals also thrive in bad WSU med school’s differing paths, economic times. charity care payments: Do you expect hospitals will merge to compete? It looks unlikely that any dependency on each other of the major systems would merge, $23.2 million and there is extraordinarily healthy BY MICHELLE MARTINEZ competition across the systems. One of the most hotly contended categories, Several of these appear to be WHAT IF THEY CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS this disproportionate share payment, or DSH, comes from Medicare and Medicaid and bad expanding outside of their typical he more than 50-year-old marriage between the hospi- market areas across the entire DON’T RECONCILE? debt reimbursement from the Blues as tals that constitute The Detroit Medical Center and the compensation to the DMC and Wayne State region, so regionalism looks like it The examination of the WSU- will lead to more competition, not T Wayne State University School of Medicine is teetering on physicians for charity care.