Great Falls Clinic

Giveaways, fireworks for Great Falls Voyagers' opener

Kattie Swartz isn't asking for much tonight when the Great Falls Voyagers open the home portion of the Pioneer League.

"We're hoping for a win and a great game, and we're also hoping our fans have a wonderful experience out here and keep coming back," she said.

OK, so Swartz is in fact looking to hit a home run tonight at Centene Stadium. To be sure, it promises to be a festive affair as the professional baseball campaign gets under way in the Electric City.

"Based on pre-ticket sales, we should be very full," said Swartz. "That would mean between 3,500 and 3,700 fans. There will be giveaways prior to the game and fireworks after it. We think it will be a great night."

The Voyagers, affiliated with the Chicago White Sox, begin their 38-game home schedule against the Missoula Osprey, a farm club of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The three-game series continues Saturday night and concludes Sunday afternoon at 1.

Swartz said there once again will be free parking at Centene — which isn't the case at all Pioneer League venues. And as usual, it will be a fan-friendly atmosphere.

"Fans need to be heads-up," said Swartz. "There will be a lotsa stuff coming at them."

When the home team homers, for instance, soft baseballs will be thrown to the crowd. The team's mascot, Orbit, will be featured in a Harvest Bread promotion that challenges kids to "find Orbit" at a particular spot during the game. The winner gets a free Harvest Bread cookie.

Following the game and prior to the fireworks show, kids can run the bases in a promotion sponsored by the Great Falls Clinic.

Gates open at 6 and the first pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Healthcare Costs

In testimony on a bill proposing a database on health care costs in Montana, an insurance executive Monday detailed what he said is “monopolistic, predatory price behavior” by one of the state’s largest hospitals.

“The truth is, most Montana hospitals operate with no competition; they are monopolies,” said Eric Schindler, CEO of the Montana School Services Foundation, which oversees a health insurance trust for 136 school districts in Montana. “The trend toward an integrated model of hospitals (that also employs physicians) makes them even more of a monopoly.”

Schindler said Benefis Hospital in Great Falls, the second-largest hospital in the state, has increased its prices more than 30 percent in the past three years, both through direct price increases and by reducing the discount it gives as a “network” provider for insurance customers.

The increases came in the wake of the 2006 lifting of a state ceiling on Benefis prices, which had been imposed in 1999 when two competing Great Falls hospitals merged to create Benefis, Schindler noted.

“Why did Benefis increase costs 16 percent this year to Montanans? Because it can,” he said.

Hmmm. Make sure and thank all those local legislators who voted for SB323. ( Senate and House )

“The trend toward an integrated model of hospitals (that also employs physicians) makes them even more of a monopoly.”  I’m sure that sounds familiar to anyone living in Great Falls. That sucking sound you hear is Benefis sucking physicians away from the Great Falls Clinic and into employment at Benefis.

No word of this in the Great Falls Tribune.

Goodnow’s arrogance in telling someone where they should do business, and the fact that Schindler’s testimony was not in the Great Falls Tribune for the Benefis board members to read, confirms “John’s” hegemony. Or perhaps legislative committee testimony about Benefis is only of interest in the Helena, Missoula, Butte, and Billings papers.

You didn’t read it right, anonymous, although I agree that on first blush there might appear to be an incongruity with my personal beliefs.

You see, as a condition of being granted a monopoly, Benefis agreed to the terms of the COPA.

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