THE DAILY TARGUM Vo l u m e 1 4 3 , N u m b e r 8 4
S E R V I N G
T H E
R U T G E R S
C O M M U N I T Y
S I N C E
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 3, 2012
1 8 6 9
Today: Party Cloudy
THREE’S A CROWD
High: 48 • Low: 29
The Rutgers women’s basketball team travels to No. 3 Connecticut Saturday with hopes of avoiding a three-game losing streak.
Medical expert urges cheaper health care for local families BY MATTHEW MATILSKY CORRESPONDENT
The executive director for Camden Coalition of Health Care Providers, Jef frey Brenner, is going after the “1 percent” of the health care industr y. Brenner discussed the spending issues of hospitals and medical specialists in addition to his plan to solve this problem in Camden yesterday at the University Institute of Health Care policy and Aging Research in downtown New Brunswick. “If you draw a circle around hospitals, they are the unit of accountability,” he said. Brenner said in New Jersey, the health care system is designed so that family practitioners refer their patients to specialists for vir tually any condition. He said these specialists are expensive and in no hurry to change the system, because they belong to the highest paid percentage of the health care industry. “They’re the ‘1 percent,’” he said. “The impact of that over time is ... you end up dumbing down family care.” Brenner said in other states, the family practitioner handles most cases, while in New Jersey these cases are handled by specialists. He said the unnecessary high cost and inefficient use of medical resources led to the current state of the health care system. In Camden hospitals, Brenner found emergency rooms were overcrowded, an unnecessar y situation, which causes the cost of treatment to increase. The CCHCP collected data indicating that roughly half of Camden’s population went to the emergency in a one-year period. The most common diagnoses for these visits were head colds, sore throats and other minor conditions, according to the CCHCP website. Meanwhile, patients with serious and complex conditions spent large amounts of time and money — up to $4 million — visiting various specialists, Brenner said. Thirteen percent of the patients who visited health care centers in Camden accounted for 80 percent of all medical costs from the past five year, according to the CCHCP website. Brenner said he came up with a solution to this, which the CCHCP is undertaking in Camden, but needed help from politicians. “This was the most painful thing I’ve ever done,” Brenner said. “Going to Medicaid didn’t work, so I went to [state] legislatures instead.” Brenner said his persistence paid off and with the help of a federally employed lobbyist, he earned a grant sufficient to support his health care model. Under his model, patients with minor conditions are sent to an in-house primary care physician, while emergencies are reserved for specialists. Brenner said all the components in Camden’s health care system, including providers and patients, must pool their resources to create one transparent system. “It’s a political challenge,” Brenner said. “Doctors are used to cranking expenses.” Some of Brenner’s colleagues in the health care industry at the University said they are impressed with his efforts. “I had not realized how far he had gone in advancing this coalition,” said Frank Thompson, a professor in the School of Public Affairs and
SEE CARE ON PAGE 5
NELSON MORALES / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Rutgers University Student Assembly members Donggu Yoon, Natalie Sowinski and Spencer Klein, from left, explain the implications of the proposed Rutgers-Camden merger last night on the College Avenue campus — and plan to protest.
Students talk merger, affordable education BY ADAM UZIALKO STAFF WRITER
The Rutgers University Legislative Association, an organization that aims to connect students with the initiatives of their elected student representatives, held a “Take Back Education” meeting last night to discuss the possibility of losing RutgersCamden and higher education funding. Joseph Cashin, corresponding secretary for the Rutgers University Student Assembly, said the status of the RutgersCamden and Rowan University merger remains stagnant in Trenton. “Nothing has officially happened yet,” Cashin said at the meeting in the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus. “The findings of the [advisory] committee were published, and that’s what’s generating this discussion.”
Cashin, a School of Ar ts and Sciences sophomore, said the merger would be detrimental to University students and staf f. “If the merger is approved, there are going to be some layoffs,” Cashin said. “I think there will be a lot more faculty and staff that can be retained otherwise.” Students, faculty and staff at RutgersCamden are also upset with the possibility of a split from the University, Cashin said. “Rutgers-Camden students don’t want this. Politicians have forced on us a medical school in exchange for a limb,” he said. Students could actively fight the proposed merger by contacting their representatives in Trenton, he said. A rally is planned for Feb. 15 in Trenton, before the Board of Governors meets, to review the advisory committee’s proposal, Cashin said.
“Other ways to lobby against this is to contact the governor’s office to voice your opposition,” he said. The N.J. Legislature has 60 days to veto the advisory committee’s proposal before it becomes law, said Donggu Yoon, a former RUSA senator. Matt Cordeiro, RUSA president, said state funding for higher education is also a cause for concern. “Rutgers gets the same amount of funding from the state as it did in 1994,” said Cordeiro, a School of Arts and Sciences senior. “We had 10,000 less people and weren’t as big as we are now, and that’s not accounting for inflation.” Cordeiro said the government “dropped the ball” in funding higher education in New Jersey.
SEE EDUCATION ON PAGE 5
INDEX UNIVERSITY The Rutgers Energy Institute kicks off a seminar series with aims to meet the challenges of energy efficiency.
OPINIONS
KEITH FREEMAN / PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
DOWNTOWN BUS COLLISION LEAVES MINIVAN DRIVER INJURED There was a collision between a University bus and another vehicle last night around 9:15 p.m. on New Street near the intersection with George Street in New Brunswick. According to the New Brunswick Police Department, the driver of the Honda Odyssey that was involved in the incident was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Authorities said only the driver of the minivan was hurt, but did not comment on his condition. “He was definitely going fast and lost control,” said Mark Novak, the driver of the bus.
Novak said he did not see any students seriously hur t. Mariana Johnson, a Rutgers Business School sophomore, was in the bus when the incident occurred. “I was looking in the other direction when it happened,” Johnson said. “We didn’t know where it hit at first.” She said students were visibly in shock, but no one was seriously injured. “All you saw was people jolt,” Johnson said. Authorities were still investigating the cause of the incident at press time. — Aleksi Tzatzev
The Susan G. Komen for a Cause foundation recently announced it would discontinue funding to Planned Parenthood centers.
UNIVERSITY . . . . . . . 3 METRO . . . . . . . . . . 7 OPINIONS . . . . . . . . . 8 DIVERSIONS . . . . . . 10 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . 12 SPORTS . . . . . . BACK
ONLINE @
DAILYTARGUM.COM