Key Takeaways
- • Corewell Health plans to outsource emergency room operations at its Troy, Grosse Pointe, Lenox, and likely Livonia hospitals to TeamHealth, a private equity-backed ER staffing firm owned by Blackstone funds, according to an internal announcement reviewed by Deadline Detroit.
- • TeamHealth already manages Corewell ERs in Dearborn, Trenton, Taylor, and Wayne; Troy's emergency department is the second busiest in Michigan with more than 106,000 annual visits.
- • Corewell Royal Oak, the busiest ER in Michigan, is reportedly excluded from the change, likely because it serves as the teaching hospital for the William Beaumont School of Medicine.
- • The column cites data-security concerns, including a prior third-party vendor breach affecting roughly one million Michigan patients, and criticism of TeamHealth's working conditions and billing practices.
- • The article is an opinion column by Eric Starkman; its claims about TeamHealth and Corewell are largely the writer's characterizations and are not independently verified in the source.
Summary
Corewell Health, the Grand Rapids-based system, plans to outsource emergency room staffing at several Metro Detroit hospitals to TeamHealth, according to an internal announcement that Deadline Detroit reviewed. The affected sites are the Troy, Grosse Pointe, and Lenox hospitals, with Livonia likely included. Troy's emergency department is the second busiest in Michigan, with more than 106,000 annual visits. TeamHealth already staffs Corewell's emergency rooms in Dearborn, Trenton, Taylor, and Wayne. Corewell Royal Oak, the state's busiest ER, will not be transferred, likely because it is the teaching hospital for the William Beaumont School of Medicine.
The column, written by Eric Starkman, frames the move as a cost-control measure. Outsourcing shifts payroll, benefits, and liability insurance for ER physicians off the hospital's balance sheet, and staffing firms of this type often rely on scheduling optimization and less-credentialed clinicians such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners. The author describes TeamHealth as a private equity-backed firm controlled by Blackstone funds and cites a 2020 ProPublica account from a TeamHealth physician who said they had little visibility into billing. The column also references a 2024 walkout by emergency workers at Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit, where TeamHealth had managed the ER; TeamHealth told Click on Detroit that median door-to-doctor time fell to 15 minutes in 2024 from 25 minutes in 2023. Ascension later ended the TeamHealth relationship, and Henry Ford Health took over the hospital.
The piece also raises cybersecurity concerns, arguing that outside staffing and billing platforms create additional points of vulnerability. It notes that Corewell has previously faced a third-party vendor breach that exposed the personal and medical information of roughly one million Michigan patients. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is quoted calling for state legislation requiring breach notification to her office, as several other states already mandate. The column is highly critical of Nessel and of Corewell leadership, including CEO Tina Freese Decker, whose 2024 compensation was $6.95 million, and it characterizes Corewell's reported $1.3 billion in profit as evidence of excessive margins. Corewell spokesman Mark Geary did not respond to a request for comment before publication, per the author, who reached out late Sunday and received an automated out-of-office reply.
The column, written by Eric Starkman, frames the move as a cost-control measure. Outsourcing shifts payroll, benefits, and liability insurance for ER physicians off the hospital's balance sheet, and staffing firms of this type often rely on scheduling optimization and less-credentialed clinicians such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners. The author describes TeamHealth as a private equity-backed firm controlled by Blackstone funds and cites a 2020 ProPublica account from a TeamHealth physician who said they had little visibility into billing. The column also references a 2024 walkout by emergency workers at Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit, where TeamHealth had managed the ER; TeamHealth told Click on Detroit that median door-to-doctor time fell to 15 minutes in 2024 from 25 minutes in 2023. Ascension later ended the TeamHealth relationship, and Henry Ford Health took over the hospital.
The piece also raises cybersecurity concerns, arguing that outside staffing and billing platforms create additional points of vulnerability. It notes that Corewell has previously faced a third-party vendor breach that exposed the personal and medical information of roughly one million Michigan patients. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is quoted calling for state legislation requiring breach notification to her office, as several other states already mandate. The column is highly critical of Nessel and of Corewell leadership, including CEO Tina Freese Decker, whose 2024 compensation was $6.95 million, and it characterizes Corewell's reported $1.3 billion in profit as evidence of excessive margins. Corewell spokesman Mark Geary did not respond to a request for comment before publication, per the author, who reached out late Sunday and received an automated out-of-office reply.
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