THIS ISSUE 60r

SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY

The

Arab Americans'

Street Smart

ACTIVIST

James Zogby

MAY 20, 1988 / 4 SIVAN 5748

Home For Aged Faces
Reduction In Beds

ALAN HITSKY

Associate Editor

The Jewish Home for Aged could
be forced to reduce its number of beds,
slash services and sell one of its three
facilities if the Michigan legislature
approves cuts in the proposed state
Medicaid budget.
The cutbacks, proposed by
Michigan Gov. James Blanchard in
the 1988-1989 state budget, would
boost the JHA's current operating
deficit of $1.2 million by at least
$500,000, JHA officials said.
Of the JHA's $8.7 million budget

for 1987-1988, $3.3 comes from
Medicaid funding. Jewish communi-
ty funding provides $1.1 million.
JHA figures its average daily cost
per patient is $72. The home is reim-
bursed with $43 a day for each
Medicaid resident, but the proposed
state cut would slash it to $37 a day.
Officials for the JHA said they
will be forced to take drastic action to
reduce costs if the legislature ap-
proves the proposed 15 percent
Medicaid cut, and if the Jewish
Welfare Federation is unable to make
up the difference.

Continued on Page 14

Sinai Center Takes
Standard Club Site

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

Construction crews broke ground
this month for a $6 million medical
complex in Southfield that will house
Oakland Internists Associates, the
most recent practice acquired by
Sinai Health Services.
The parent corporation for the
615-bed Sinai Hospital of Detroit pur-
chased the practices of the group's 15
physicians for an undisclosed amount.
Hospital officials declined to discuss
terms of the agreement, but said the
doctors will receive several benefits,
including costly malpractice
insurance.
Sinai executive Irving Shapiro
said the group of doctors regularly
has referred patients to the hospital.
He said 15 to 20 percent of all activi-
ty within the hospital's department of
medicine comes from Oakland
Internists.

Sinai Health Services will lease
the building at Northwestern
Highway and Franklin Road from
Eric Yale Lutz and Associates, real
estate developers and owners of the
property that once was home of the
now defunct Standard Club North.
The investment group intended to
build another private club or a
medical center when it bought the
2.46-acre site three years ago, Eric
Yale Lutz said.
"This gives us the opportunity to
work with existing physicians and
sustain the current level of activity at
the hospital while working on
development and growth," Shapiro
said.
The 32,475-square-foot medical
complex is scheduled to open next
spring, bringing to four the number
of suburban health care centers
operated by Sinai. Its groundbreaking
culminates two years of planning.

Continued on Page 15