Uninsured care would fall to area hospitals if Gary's Methodist Northlake closes

As The Methodist Hospitals described its bleak financial outlook Tuesday, officials from the region’s other hospitals were left virtually speechless upon learning about the possible worst-case scenario.

If Methodist’s financial picture doesn’t improve, closing the Northlake campus in Gary will be inevitable, Tom Kruse, vice president and chief strategy officer for The Methodist Hospitals, said Tuesday.

If Methodist Northlake, which has more patient beds than any other hospital in Lake or Porter counties, closes its doors, the patients won’t just go away. They would be forced to go to other hospitals, which would have a major impact on the region’s health care system.

“This is such an unexpected development,” said Robin Carlascio, spokesperson for Porter hospital.

Carlascio said the closing of the Northlake campus in Gary would certainly impact Porter’s operations, but to what level is unknown.

“We would have to analyze that,” Carlascio said.

But one thing is certain, Carlascio said: “This would be very unfortunate for the citizens of Gary and the other communities that rely on the Northlake campus.”

In 2005, Methodist’s Northlake campus discharged nearly 23,000 patients — almost double the amount served by its Southlake campus.

In an interview last year, Kruse said 70 percent of the patients in Northlake are on Medicaid or Medicare or are uninsured.

Still waiting on reimbursement funds from the state for indigent care, totaling more than $67 million, the hospital could, in the immediate future, end all elective surgical procedures at Northlake.

Mylinda Cane, regional director of marketing and corporate communications for Community Healthcare System, was also surprised that the option of closing Northlake was on the table.

“Certainly the closure of Methodist would require serious discussion among all the hospitals about how to provide care to the people who need it,” Cane said.

The Community system includes Community Hospital in Munster, St. Mary Hospital in Hobart and St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago.

“No single hospital has the capacity to provide care to all the patients served by Methodist,” Cane said.