the $400M from UM Medical

[TheOriginalCane]

Every SPAC deal is essentially shady and could be investigated by the SEC. SEC is about to regulate the crap out of SPACs.

Accurate.

 

[Gi0logy]

I don't know much about it other than the articles about John Ruiz's deal. It seemingly makes money from nothing if I understood correctly.

I'm right there with you brother lol. I've worked at companies that have IPO'd (traditional method that puts your company through the ringer) and worked at a company that will soon SPAC.

They tried explaining it to me but I'm still very confused. But the jist I've gotten is that the SPAC method just bypasses a lot of things including the SEC which is why they want to regulate it more.

With that said, I do think there are some very big question marks around Ruiz's deal so you're not wrong. Probably people here that know a lot more than I.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

I don't know much about it other than the articles about John Ruiz's deal. It seemingly makes money from nothing if I understood correctly.

And the chicks are free...

 

[MizCane]

It’s a private school. Folks can eat a ****. Nobody cares about their jealous opinions.

 

[jw410]

I'm right there with you brother lol. I've worked at companies that have IPO'd (traditional method that puts your company through the ringer) and worked at a company that will soon SPAC.

They tried explaining it to me but I'm still very confused. But the jist I've gotten is that the SPAC method just bypasses a lot of things including the SEC which is why they want to regulate it more.

With that said, I do think there are some very big question marks around Ruiz's deal so you're not wrong. Probably people here that know a lot more than I.

Yes, easy to go forward with a SPAC think Trump's new stock (DWAC) than all the hurdles of IPO. SPAC downfall is they have a lot less years to pay back these investors who believed in them. Like a company like Vivint (VVNT) security IPO'd they had way more years to pay back investors, think how long it took Lucid (LCID) to merge with Churchill. Companies traditionally would IPO like Robinhood (HOOD) or Upstart (UPST) took a lot of paperwork. Plus they use all the Payments for Order Flow but that is a whole other story.

 

[Boarcane]

Every SPAC deal is essentially shady and could be investigated by the SEC. SEC is about to regulate the crap out of SPACs.

“Every” is a loaded word. They’re basically reverse mergers. It’s a less expensive and easier way to take a company public. It’s been going on for decades. They were once called ghost mergers. Some are legitimate and took advantage of a hot spac market. Know what you own. That’s the lesson here. Don’t vilify every one, you might miss out on something good.

 

[Kjdcanefan]

“Every” is a loaded word. They’re basically reverse mergers. It’s a less expensive and easier way to take a company public. It’s been going on for decades. They were once called ghost mergers. Some are legitimate and took advantage of a hot spac market. Know what you own. That’s the lesson here. Don’t vilify every one, you might miss out on something good.

Thanks for that explanation.

 

[CaneintheWilderness]

Is it just me or are people misunderstanding the difference between $400m revenue and $400m profit? What’s the big deal? Was all $400m expected to go back into U Health?

Also, I’m actually at a U Health Clinic as I post this. Glad to be a contributor.

Not just you; people do this constantly and it's maddening. Also whether that is a net income number or gross profit, and whether it is annual or represents some other period of time. It doesn't so much bother me that people don't know the difference. But it's really annoying when people use those misunderstandings to then expound further arguments / discussion. Makes it hard to sort out what's happening.

Based on some googling, I think the $400M is something like an annual operating income number - lower down on the income statement than gross profit but higher up than net income. I found an annual report from 2018 that shows revenues of ~$2bn for that year, with about ~$200M as what's left over less operating expenses. That margin seems roughly in line with large HC systems, which have EBITDA margins (kind of like operating income) ranging from 10-20% (for reference HCA is around 20%). A 200-400M jump in 2-3 years is believable if they've been managed like people here say.

People also do this with Ruiz' alleged multi-billion dollar fortune. The guy does not even have that as paper money yet, let alone real money.

 

[JTKoval]

We have to stop blaming Donna. "Eat what you kill" was the policy under Tad Foote too. The primary differences being, (a) Tad Foote relaxed the rule a bit when Miami went on probation and the Big East revenue dropped precipitously, and (b) Donna did not relax the rule once we had a massive increase in revenue due to joining the ACC. Which, of course, was a great thing that she accomplished for UM and UM Athletics.

That was from a herald article. You will need to contact them. I was just repeating what they said. Dang media!

 

[TheOriginalCane]

That was from a herald article. You will need to contact them. I was just repeating what they said. Dang media!

Fair enough, I ain't mad at ya.

I just wish the sportswriters had a bit more perspective. Oh, yeah, and HONESTY.

 

[dukemv]

People think anything medical made a fortune during covid and it's simply not true. The money in healthcare is in outpatient and elective surgery, all of which was cut off leaving hospitals tightening belts and counting pennies. The fact that UHealth ended up in a good position was the result of decisions made before the pandemic. It's been trending up for a while.

sports medicine with rich folks paying out of pocket or w/ good insurance for injections and joint surgeries

 

[cane14]

Not just you; people do this constantly and it's maddening. Also whether that is a net income number or gross profit, and whether it is annual or represents some other period of time. It doesn't so much bother me that people don't know the difference. But it's really annoying when people use those misunderstandings to then expound further arguments / discussion. Makes it hard to sort out what's happening.

Based on some googling, I think the $400M is something like an annual operating income number - lower down on the income statement than gross profit but higher up than net income. I found an annual report from 2018 that shows revenues of ~$2bn for that year, less expenses, with about ~$200M as what's left over less operating expenses. That margin seems roughly in line with large HC systems, which have EBITDA margins (kind of like operating income) ranging from 10-20% (for reference HCA is around 20%). A 200-400M jump in 2-3 years is believable if they've been managed like people here say.

People also do this with Ruiz' alleged multi-billion dollar fortune. The guy does not even have that as paper money yet, let alone real money.

I really appreciate this breakdown @CaneintheWilderness! Makes a lot sense now. I figured it was more annual operating income.

Also on Ruiz. I agree 100%. As for the stadium, it’s mostly all talk until it is liquid. I’ve known of Ruiz practically my whole life. Grew up and played ball with one of his kids. Very interesting story. Crazy turnaround from his investments for “La Ley” just less than 10 years ago.

 

[PredaCane]

Bottom line, people are nervous. They know what can be built here and a new architect is at the helm.

 

[Empirical Cane]

Someone explain to me a few things about this. I'm curious and not knowledgeable on the situation and got friends trying to pull their moral BS on me with this Mario move and the money. As always, they'll find anyway to try to knock us.

1. Do other universities not fund their sports program from non-sports related money?
2. Is this extra funding we got due to Covid?
3. All of our sports funding before has been from our sports programs and fundraising before?Private” universities do have a touch more flexibility than “public” universities, but the thrust of your question was UHealth. Call UPMC and see if they fund Pitt Panther Football.

• 1. “Private” universities do have a touch more flexibility than “public” universities, but the thrust of your question was UHealth. Call UPMC and see if they fund Pitt Panther Football. Not only is it unethical and immoral to spend “healthcare dollars” on an athletic department (or other university departments for that matter), depending on the payer source of how those funds were generated, it’s illegal. Yes, reasonable marketing campaign $$ would be acceptable, but they are already doing that. I’ll speculate that UHealth operations generate more than 50% of ALL of University of Miami receipts—and the real number might even be 60%+. Supposedly there is a U Miami CFO type who lurks on here, how close am I? Miami has a problem: they are not a University Health System, but rather a Health System with a pesky small university attached to it. Expect the calls to grow for “UHealth” to either establish even thicker firewalls between itself and the rest of the University or even an out right separation and creation of an independent entity altogether (my guess within 10 years or less). I’ll explain more why below…

• 2. COVID isn’t really where this money “is coming from”, but someone is gonna pull that card soon on Miami if this “UHealth is paying for football” dumpster fire doesn’t get put out quickly. UHealth does not, let me repeat muppets, DOES NOT have this mythical $400MM like you think —no matter who “is more knowledgeable” tries tells you—and guess what—bet they won’t. Why? Let’s walk down memory lane…
  UM bought Cedars Lebanon in the mid-ish oughts from that small outfit you know and love as Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) because the building was (and is) a money pit. After running it for about 10 years (you think they would have gotten better) with a bed capacity in the 500s, the rebranded UTower alone lost $175MM+ FY17/18. To be fair though, UHealth’s other product lines have turned a decent “profit” year-to-year. But why? Ahhhhhh, the devil is always in the details isn’t it? The only, and I do almost assert the ONLY reason: cancer (yes other product lines are self-sustaining, calm down). Someone make a bet with me. I’ll wager UHealth used to endure 3-5 TJC Accreditations—managing one is tough, but multiple in the same system you will lose your will to live. They got sneaky though with the Cedar’s acquisition and thought they had an ace in the hole that HCA didn’t have—Sylvester Cancer Center—and they combined (previously) all UHealth’s TJC accreditation under Suffering Succotash!. Who cares right? Well, PPS-Exempt Cancer Hospitals status cares and it generates HUGE amounts of money vs everyone else who must play by PPS rules (it ****es them off). Call it say a 30%-40% “profit” advantage. I won’t bore you with the details but know this: PPS is how Medicare, Medicaid, and then in turn most private insurers, base their reimbursement rates. Those lucky few hospitals that started PPS Exempt “pilot programs” wanted to prove to those cheap *** US Government bean counters if only they would just pay us “actual costs” to treat cancer, we will provide better care and even cure it! On top of that, almost all UHealth outpatient clinics (except their micro minute clinics in Walgreens) do some form of chemo or other cancer related treatments (imaging, etc.). Why? You guessed it…they get to charge you (ok your payer) HOSPITAL rates—brilliant hack into the allowances really. Well, HHS knows all of this and are making moves (if not done already) to no longer pay in-patient rates at outpatient facilities. Quick someone google PPS-exempt and tell me if University of Miami and its clinics (or at least several) are on the list. When I used to be really good at this, there was about 9 cancer hospitals in the program. If I’m wrong about Miami’s designation, maudes ban me for life. Oh, and remember the whole better care and cure cancer thing, yeah…wrong. Study after comparative study show that PPS exempt facilities provide no better care than other cancer centers—and the demands to strip the status grow louder and louder each year. So, not IF, but when PPS exemptions go away, UHealth’s main cash cow will be looking at about a 30%-40% downturn in receipts with a fixed-cost infrastructure drunkenly built at the higher receipt rate. That $400MM will disappear quicker than Brian Country Boy Kelly from his final speech to Notre Dame players. And I haven’t even started on the illegal part. I’m too tired and drunk at this point, but think about this. UHealth has already been hit with a $25MM+/- billing fraud penalty from HHS and DOJ. Guess how they were found out? Inside whistleblower (I think Dr. Lord or Cloud…used to be Miller’s COO) who by law (policy really) will collect 15%-20%. During the next TJC survey or HHS routine audit, there will be a line of whistleblowers a mile long ready to provide pages and pages of documents on how UHealth re-directed/harvested “profits” from taxpayer derived funding streams into the football program. You think some government investigators made a career with Varsity Blues? Goodness what until they get a hold of this. Don’t get me wrong, people love our Hurricanes, but know what they love even more? 15%-20% of a multi-year inappropriate mixing of dollars between UHealth and Hecht. Even non-healthcare types ask yourself this: You want to contemplate why your UHealth co-pay bill for your kid or abuela is so high knowing that the football team received millions? You want to be the executive who authorized UHealth funding for the football team instead of increasing the charity care budget? You want to explain to NIH why your research deserves $xxMM in taxpayer dollars when the award board asks “How much of your UHealth operating revenues from last year supported directly and indirectly your football team?” Rival researchers will turn on their Miami competitors in an instant if it means more grant money for their labs and life’s work. Any first year Healthcare Admin grad student with an IQ above 50 could write pages and pages about why UHealth dollars mixing with our Miami Hurricanes in any appreciable amount is a galactically stupid idea.

• 3. I would guess athletic department receipts, boosters, and the University’s General Fund-ish?

I do hope articles in the press don't start to pop up about "UHealth is paying for Miami Football". IF that happens and it gets some legs, watch out.

 

[BigCaneAl]

• 1. “Private” universities do have a touch more flexibility than “public” universities, but the thrust of your question was UHealth. Call UPMC and see if they fund Pitt Panther Football. Not only is it unethical and immoral to spend “healthcare dollars” on an athletic department (or other university departments for that matter), depending on the payer source of how those funds were generated, it’s illegal. Yes, reasonable marketing campaign $$ would be acceptable, but they are already doing that. I’ll speculate that UHealth operations generate more than 50% of ALL of University of Miami receipts—and the real number might even be 60%+. Supposedly there is a U Miami CFO type who lurks on here, how close am I? Miami has a problem: they are not a University Health System, but rather a Health System with a pesky small university attached to it. Expect the calls to grow for “UHealth” to either establish even thicker firewalls between itself and the rest of the University or even an out right separation and creation of an independent entity altogether (my guess within 10 years or less). I’ll explain more why below…

• 2. COVID isn’t really where this money “is coming from”, but someone is gonna pull that card soon on Miami if this “UHealth is paying for football” dumpster fire doesn’t get put out quickly. UHealth does not, let me repeat muppets, DOES NOT have this mythical $400MM like you think —no matter who “is more knowledgeable” tries tells you—and guess what—bet they won’t. Why? Let’s walk down memory lane…
  UM bought Cedars Lebanon in the mid-ish oughts from that small outfit you know and love as Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) because the building was (and is) a money pit. After running it for about 10 years (you think they would have gotten better) with a bed capacity in the 500s, the rebranded UTower alone lost $175MM+ FY17/18. To be fair though, UHealth’s other product lines have turned a decent “profit” year-to-year. But why? Ahhhhhh, the devil is always in the details isn’t it? The only, and I do almost assert the ONLY reason: cancer (yes other product lines are self-sustaining, calm down). Someone make a bet with me. I’ll wager UHealth used to endure 3-5 TJC Accreditations—managing one is tough, but multiple in the same system you will lose your will to live. They got sneaky though with the Cedar’s acquisition and thought they had an ace in the hole that HCA didn’t have—Sylvester Cancer Center—and they combined (previously) all UHealth’s TJC accreditation under Suffering Succotash!. Who cares right? Well, PPS-Exempt Cancer Hospitals status cares and it generates HUGE amounts of money vs everyone else who must play by PPS rules (it ****es them off). Call it say a 30%-40% “profit” advantage. I won’t bore you with the details but know this: PPS is how Medicare, Medicaid, and then in turn most private insurers, base their reimbursement rates. Those lucky few hospitals that started PPS Exempt “pilot programs” wanted to prove to those cheap *** US Government bean counters if only they would just pay us “actual costs” to treat cancer, we will provide better care and even cure it! On top of that, almost all UHealth outpatient clinics (except their micro minute clinics in Walgreens) do some form of chemo or other cancer related treatments (imaging, etc.). Why? You guessed it…they get to charge you (ok your payer) HOSPITAL rates—brilliant hack into the allowances really. Well, HHS knows all of this and are making moves (if not done already) to no longer pay in-patient rates at outpatient facilities. Quick someone google PPS-exempt and tell me if University of Miami and its clinics (or at least several) are on the list. When I used to be really good at this, there was about 9 cancer hospitals in the program. If I’m wrong about Miami’s designation, maudes ban me for life. Oh, and remember the whole better care and cure cancer thing, yeah…wrong. Study after comparative study show that PPS exempt facilities provide no better care than other cancer centers—and the demands to strip the status grow louder and louder each year. So, not IF, but when PPS exemptions go away, UHealth’s main cash cow will be looking at about a 30%-40% downturn in receipts with a fixed-cost infrastructure drunkenly built at the higher receipt rate. That $400MM will disappear quicker than Brian Country Boy Kelly from his final speech to Notre Dame players. And I haven’t even started on the illegal part. I’m too tired and drunk at this point, but think about this. UHealth has already been hit with a $25MM+/- billing fraud penalty from HHS and DOJ. Guess how they were found out? Inside whistleblower (I think Dr. Lord or Cloud…used to be Miller’s COO) who by law (policy really) will collect 15%-20%. During the next TJC survey or HHS routine audit, there will be a line of whistleblowers a mile long ready to provide pages and pages of documents on how UHealth re-directed/harvested “profits” from taxpayer derived funding streams into the football program. You think some government investigators made a career with Varsity Blues? Goodness what until they get a hold of this. Don’t get me wrong, people love our Hurricanes, but know what they love even more? 15%-20% of a multi-year inappropriate mixing of dollars between UHealth and Hecht. Even non-healthcare types ask yourself this: You want to contemplate why your UHealth co-pay bill for your kid or abuela is so high knowing that the football team received millions? You want to be the executive who authorized UHealth funding for the football team instead of increasing the charity care budget? You want to explain to NIH why your research deserves $xxMM in taxpayer dollars when the award board asks “How much of your UHealth operating revenues from last year supported directly and indirectly your football team?” Rival researchers will turn on their Miami competitors in an instant if it means more grant money for their labs and life’s work. Any first year Healthcare Admin grad student with an IQ above 50 could write pages and pages about why UHealth dollars mixing with our Miami Hurricanes in any appreciable amount is a galactically stupid idea.

• 3. I would guess athletic department receipts, boosters, and the University’s General Fund-ish?

I do hope articles in the press don't start to pop up about "UHealth is paying for Miami Football". IF that happens and it gets some legs, watch out.

Nobodies reading all that Steve. That said…Some is right, some is borderline, and some is bat**** conspiracy talk. To add, UHealth is 75% of University revenue.

 

[BigCaneAl]

Someone explain to me a few things about this. I'm curious and not knowledgeable on the situation and got friends trying to pull their moral BS on me with this Mario move and the money. As always, they'll find anyway to try to knock us.

1. Do other universities not fund their sports program from non-sports related money?
2. Is this extra funding we got due to Covid?
3. All of our sports funding before has been from our sports programs and fundraising before?

1. Don’t know what other schools do, but we don’t and aren’t planning to.
2. No, not at all. By far the largest service line for UHealth is cancer.
3. Football has been operating at a large surplus for a while. It doesn’t need UHealth money. The difference is now the school doesn’t need football money so it can go back to football.

 

[CaneintheWilderness]

• 1. “Private” universities do have a touch more flexibility than “public” universities, but the thrust of your question was UHealth. Call UPMC and see if they fund Pitt Panther Football. Not only is it unethical and immoral to spend “healthcare dollars” on an athletic department (or other university departments for that matter), depending on the payer source of how those funds were generated, it’s illegal. Yes, reasonable marketing campaign $$ would be acceptable, but they are already doing that. I’ll speculate that UHealth operations generate more than 50% of ALL of University of Miami receipts—and the real number might even be 60%+. Supposedly there is a U Miami CFO type who lurks on here, how close am I? Miami has a problem: they are not a University Health System, but rather a Health System with a pesky small university attached to it. Expect the calls to grow for “UHealth” to either establish even thicker firewalls between itself and the rest of the University or even an out right separation and creation of an independent entity altogether (my guess within 10 years or less). I’ll explain more why below…

• 2. COVID isn’t really where this money “is coming from”, but someone is gonna pull that card soon on Miami if this “UHealth is paying for football” dumpster fire doesn’t get put out quickly. UHealth does not, let me repeat muppets, DOES NOT have this mythical $400MM like you think —no matter who “is more knowledgeable” tries tells you—and guess what—bet they won’t. Why? Let’s walk down memory lane…
  UM bought Cedars Lebanon in the mid-ish oughts from that small outfit you know and love as Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) because the building was (and is) a money pit. After running it for about 10 years (you think they would have gotten better) with a bed capacity in the 500s, the rebranded UTower alone lost $175MM+ FY17/18. To be fair though, UHealth’s other product lines have turned a decent “profit” year-to-year. But why? Ahhhhhh, the devil is always in the details isn’t it? The only, and I do almost assert the ONLY reason: cancer (yes other product lines are self-sustaining, calm down). Someone make a bet with me. I’ll wager UHealth used to endure 3-5 TJC Accreditations—managing one is tough, but multiple in the same system you will lose your will to live. They got sneaky though with the Cedar’s acquisition and thought they had an ace in the hole that HCA didn’t have—Sylvester Cancer Center—and they combined (previously) all UHealth’s TJC accreditation under Suffering Succotash!. Who cares right? Well, PPS-Exempt Cancer Hospitals status cares and it generates HUGE amounts of money vs everyone else who must play by PPS rules (it ****es them off). Call it say a 30%-40% “profit” advantage. I won’t bore you with the details but know this: PPS is how Medicare, Medicaid, and then in turn most private insurers, base their reimbursement rates. Those lucky few hospitals that started PPS Exempt “pilot programs” wanted to prove to those cheap *** US Government bean counters if only they would just pay us “actual costs” to treat cancer, we will provide better care and even cure it! On top of that, almost all UHealth outpatient clinics (except their micro minute clinics in Walgreens) do some form of chemo or other cancer related treatments (imaging, etc.). Why? You guessed it…they get to charge you (ok your payer) HOSPITAL rates—brilliant hack into the allowances really. Well, HHS knows all of this and are making moves (if not done already) to no longer pay in-patient rates at outpatient facilities. Quick someone google PPS-exempt and tell me if University of Miami and its clinics (or at least several) are on the list. When I used to be really good at this, there was about 9 cancer hospitals in the program. If I’m wrong about Miami’s designation, maudes ban me for life. Oh, and remember the whole better care and cure cancer thing, yeah…wrong. Study after comparative study show that PPS exempt facilities provide no better care than other cancer centers—and the demands to strip the status grow louder and louder each year. So, not IF, but when PPS exemptions go away, UHealth’s main cash cow will be looking at about a 30%-40% downturn in receipts with a fixed-cost infrastructure drunkenly built at the higher receipt rate. That $400MM will disappear quicker than Brian Country Boy Kelly from his final speech to Notre Dame players. And I haven’t even started on the illegal part. I’m too tired and drunk at this point, but think about this. UHealth has already been hit with a $25MM+/- billing fraud penalty from HHS and DOJ. Guess how they were found out? Inside whistleblower (I think Dr. Lord or Cloud…used to be Miller’s COO) who by law (policy really) will collect 15%-20%. During the next TJC survey or HHS routine audit, there will be a line of whistleblowers a mile long ready to provide pages and pages of documents on how UHealth re-directed/harvested “profits” from taxpayer derived funding streams into the football program. You think some government investigators made a career with Varsity Blues? Goodness what until they get a hold of this. Don’t get me wrong, people love our Hurricanes, but know what they love even more? 15%-20% of a multi-year inappropriate mixing of dollars between UHealth and Hecht. Even non-healthcare types ask yourself this: You want to contemplate why your UHealth co-pay bill for your kid or abuela is so high knowing that the football team received millions? You want to be the executive who authorized UHealth funding for the football team instead of increasing the charity care budget? You want to explain to NIH why your research deserves $xxMM in taxpayer dollars when the award board asks “How much of your UHealth operating revenues from last year supported directly and indirectly your football team?” Rival researchers will turn on their Miami competitors in an instant if it means more grant money for their labs and life’s work. Any first year Healthcare Admin grad student with an IQ above 50 could write pages and pages about why UHealth dollars mixing with our Miami Hurricanes in any appreciable amount is a galactically stupid idea.

• 3. I would guess athletic department receipts, boosters, and the University’s General Fund-ish?

I do hope articles in the press don't start to pop up about "UHealth is paying for Miami Football". IF that happens and it gets some legs, watch out.

Interesting point about the PPS exemption going away. That 30-40% could be very bad, or not as bad, depending on the revenue mix. But to your point, if the PPE comes in at a relatively high fixed cost, that 30-40% reduction could disproportionately affect bottom line.

But yeah, it makes sense why UM couldn't use HC system profits to fund the football program directly. I'm not privy to the allocation methods of a major university system, but the benefit - if any - is probably more in the "money is fungible" way where investment money at the "HoldCo" level (the University Admin level, as opposed to the UM Health or Academics or Athletics level) that might have gone to one thing can now more easily go to another.

 

[cyrez8]

Your friends are pathetic

 

[Bender]

• 1. “Private” universities do have a touch more flexibility than “public” universities, but the thrust of your question was UHealth. Call UPMC and see if they fund Pitt Panther Football. Not only is it unethical and immoral to spend “healthcare dollars” on an athletic department (or other university departments for that matter), depending on the payer source of how those funds were generated, it’s illegal. Yes, reasonable marketing campaign $$ would be acceptable, but they are already doing that. I’ll speculate that UHealth operations generate more than 50% of ALL of University of Miami receipts—and the real number might even be 60%+. Supposedly there is a U Miami CFO type who lurks on here, how close am I? Miami has a problem: they are not a University Health System, but rather a Health System with a pesky small university attached to it. Expect the calls to grow for “UHealth” to either establish even thicker firewalls between itself and the rest of the University or even an out right separation and creation of an independent entity altogether (my guess within 10 years or less). I’ll explain more why below…

• 2. COVID isn’t really where this money “is coming from”, but someone is gonna pull that card soon on Miami if this “UHealth is paying for football” dumpster fire doesn’t get put out quickly. UHealth does not, let me repeat muppets, DOES NOT have this mythical $400MM like you think —no matter who “is more knowledgeable” tries tells you—and guess what—bet they won’t. Why? Let’s walk down memory lane…
  UM bought Cedars Lebanon in the mid-ish oughts from that small outfit you know and love as Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) because the building was (and is) a money pit. After running it for about 10 years (you think they would have gotten better) with a bed capacity in the 500s, the rebranded UTower alone lost $175MM+ FY17/18. To be fair though, UHealth’s other product lines have turned a decent “profit” year-to-year. But why? Ahhhhhh, the devil is always in the details isn’t it? The only, and I do almost assert the ONLY reason: cancer (yes other product lines are self-sustaining, calm down). Someone make a bet with me. I’ll wager UHealth used to endure 3-5 TJC Accreditations—managing one is tough, but multiple in the same system you will lose your will to live. They got sneaky though with the Cedar’s acquisition and thought they had an ace in the hole that HCA didn’t have—Sylvester Cancer Center—and they combined (previously) all UHealth’s TJC accreditation under Suffering Succotash!. Who cares right? Well, PPS-Exempt Cancer Hospitals status cares and it generates HUGE amounts of money vs everyone else who must play by PPS rules (it ****es them off). Call it say a 30%-40% “profit” advantage. I won’t bore you with the details but know this: PPS is how Medicare, Medicaid, and then in turn most private insurers, base their reimbursement rates. Those lucky few hospitals that started PPS Exempt “pilot programs” wanted to prove to those cheap *** US Government bean counters if only they would just pay us “actual costs” to treat cancer, we will provide better care and even cure it! On top of that, almost all UHealth outpatient clinics (except their micro minute clinics in Walgreens) do some form of chemo or other cancer related treatments (imaging, etc.). Why? You guessed it…they get to charge you (ok your payer) HOSPITAL rates—brilliant hack into the allowances really. Well, HHS knows all of this and are making moves (if not done already) to no longer pay in-patient rates at outpatient facilities. Quick someone google PPS-exempt and tell me if University of Miami and its clinics (or at least several) are on the list. When I used to be really good at this, there was about 9 cancer hospitals in the program. If I’m wrong about Miami’s designation, maudes ban me for life. Oh, and remember the whole better care and cure cancer thing, yeah…wrong. Study after comparative study show that PPS exempt facilities provide no better care than other cancer centers—and the demands to strip the status grow louder and louder each year. So, not IF, but when PPS exemptions go away, UHealth’s main cash cow will be looking at about a 30%-40% downturn in receipts with a fixed-cost infrastructure drunkenly built at the higher receipt rate. That $400MM will disappear quicker than Brian Country Boy Kelly from his final speech to Notre Dame players. And I haven’t even started on the illegal part. I’m too tired and drunk at this point, but think about this. UHealth has already been hit with a $25MM+/- billing fraud penalty from HHS and DOJ. Guess how they were found out? Inside whistleblower (I think Dr. Lord or Cloud…used to be Miller’s COO) who by law (policy really) will collect 15%-20%. During the next TJC survey or HHS routine audit, there will be a line of whistleblowers a mile long ready to provide pages and pages of documents on how UHealth re-directed/harvested “profits” from taxpayer derived funding streams into the football program. You think some government investigators made a career with Varsity Blues? Goodness what until they get a hold of this. Don’t get me wrong, people love our Hurricanes, but know what they love even more? 15%-20% of a multi-year inappropriate mixing of dollars between UHealth and Hecht. Even non-healthcare types ask yourself this: You want to contemplate why your UHealth co-pay bill for your kid or abuela is so high knowing that the football team received millions? You want to be the executive who authorized UHealth funding for the football team instead of increasing the charity care budget? You want to explain to NIH why your research deserves $xxMM in taxpayer dollars when the award board asks “How much of your UHealth operating revenues from last year supported directly and indirectly your football team?” Rival researchers will turn on their Miami competitors in an instant if it means more grant money for their labs and life’s work. Any first year Healthcare Admin grad student with an IQ above 50 could write pages and pages about why UHealth dollars mixing with our Miami Hurricanes in any appreciable amount is a galactically stupid idea.

• 3. I would guess athletic department receipts, boosters, and the University’s General Fund-ish?

I do hope articles in the press don't start to pop up about "UHealth is paying for Miami Football". IF that happens and it gets some legs, watch out.

@BigCaneAl

 

[1mg of Epi]

The university now operates as most others do, as far as I can tell, and I did try to research this.

There is one difference….. Miami is very profitable, snd was prior to covid too. A lot of other schools operate in the red… Texas, for example, by tens of millions.