PA Safety Net Admin, Author at Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

PA Goes Slow on Health Exchanges

Pennsylvania is not engaging in extensive planning on the development of key components of the Affordable Care Act and will not do so until it receives additional information from the federal government.
So explained state Insurance Commissioner Michael Consedine in an August letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Mr. Consedine reinforced this message in a statement he submitted to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on September 12.
According to Mr. Consedine, Pennsylvania lacks the information it needs on two important aspects of the 2010 health care reform law: the creation of health insurance exchanges and the development of the essential benefits packages that insurers will be required to offer Pennsylvanians.
Read more about the state’s position on this issue in this Central Penn Business Journal article. In addition, read Mr. Consedine’s letter to Secretary Sebelius here and his statement to the House Ways and Means Committee here .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-24T06:00:47+00:00September 24th, 2012|Health care reform|Comments Off

Number of Uninsured in PA Unchanged

The number of uninsured Pennsylvanians is not growing. According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, about one out of every eight Pennsylvanians under the age of 65 was uninsured in 2010-2011, roughly the same number as in 2008-2009. 16.2 percent under the age of 65 were covered by Medicaid in 2010-2011, the same as 2008-2009 but up sharply over previous years.
Find more data about the uninsured in Pennsylvania, those living below the federal poverty level, and those covered by Medicaid in this Central Penn Business Journal article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-21T06:00:14+00:00September 21st, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

DPW Issues Bulletin on Peritoneal Dialysis

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW) has issued a new Medical Assistance Bulletin titled “Information Regarding Peritoneal Dialysis Treatment.” The stated purpose of the bulletin is “to provide information to providers regarding the use of peritoneal dialysis (PD) in treating beneficiaries with kidney failure, the potential benefits of PD over hemodialysis, and the screening of beneficiaries for PD suitability.”
The new bulletin is available here .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-20T06:00:28+00:00September 20th, 2012|Meetings and notices, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations|Comments Off

Parts of Central PA Feature High Uninsured Rate, Low Access to Care

Five counties in central Pennsylvania currently suffer from a high rate of uninsured residents and limited access to medical care.
According to an assessment commissioned by three mid-state hospitals, one out of every 3.5 residents in the surveyed counties lack health insurance, compared to one in 10.4 Pennsylvanians overall.
The assessment covered Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon, Perry, and northern York counties.
Read more about the assessment, and find a direct link to the assessment, in this Central Penn Business Journal article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-18T10:35:01+00:00September 18th, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Sequestration Could Cost Health Care Jobs in PA

Unless Congress reverses the sequestration of $2 billion in Medicare funding by the end of 2012, that cut in federal Medicare spending could result in the loss of nearly a half-million health care jobs across the country in 2013 alone.
And more than 37,000 of those lost health care jobs could be in Pennsylvania.
So says a new report sponsored by the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Nurses Association.
The cuts are mandated by the Budget Control Act, which Congress adopted late last year. While discussions are under way in Congress to block or delay implementation of the sequestration cuts in Medicare, defense, and other spending areas, it is not clear at this time whether those efforts will succeed.
It also is not clear what cuts the federal government will make to save the required $2 billion.
Any large-scale job losses associated with reduced federal Medicare spending would no doubt hit Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals hard because of the large numbers of Medicare patients they serve and their already-thin operating margins.
Download the report describing the impact of the $2 billion Medicare sequestration on health care employment here and read more about the prospects for health care jobs in Pennsylvania in this Pittsburgh Business Times report.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-14T06:00:31+00:00September 14th, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

NY Times Looks at Safety-Net Hospitals

The New York Times’ “Doctor and Patient” blog has taken a brief look at safety-net hospitals.
In the article “The Fraying Hospital Safety Net,” Dr. Pauline Chen examines the challenges safety-net hospitals face and the ability of many of them, even in the face of those challenges, to deliver quality care.
Read this New York Times article on safety-net hospitals here.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-13T06:00:03+00:00September 13th, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Physician Reluctance Threatens Medicaid Expansion in PA

If Pennsylvania moves ahead and expands Medicaid eligibility as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act, the ability of newly enrolled recipients to obtain medical care may be jeopardized by the reluctance of some physicians to take on more Medicaid patients.
According to a recent article in the journal Health Affairs, 68 percent of the state’s doctors are currently accepting new Medicaid patients. Those who are not cite low reimbursement rates and already-high patient loads among the reasons they are not accepting new Medicaid patients.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has not revealed whether he intends to expand Medicaid eligibility in the state and is not expected to do so until after the November election. The mandatory Medicaid expansion, part of the 2010 health care reform law, was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving expansion decisions to the individual states.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health says that 94 percent of rural doctors and 84 percent of the state’s urban doctors currently care for Medicaid patients.
Read more about the situation in Pennsylvania today and its implications for Medicaid expansion in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-11T06:00:28+00:00September 11th, 2012|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Changes in Fee-for-Service Fee Schedule

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare has released changes in the state’s Medical Assistance fee-for-service fee schedule.
The changes, which took effect September 1, can be found in this Medical Assistance Bulletin notice .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-07T09:52:33+00:00September 7th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

DPW to Launch New Claims Review Process

Come fall, the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare (DPW) will introduce a new system that performs an automated review of Medical Assistance claims before the state pays those claims.
The new system employs a computer program called InvestiClaim that will review claims for procedure or diagnosis codes with inadequate medical documentation, duplicate claims, provider types, license numbers, and other considerations.
The state projects that this new system will save $5 million a year.
The future use of a system to review claims prior to payment was included in Governor Corbett’s original Medical Assistance budget proposal for FY 2013.
Read more about InvestiClaim and how it will work in this PA Independent article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-08-31T09:49:48+00:00August 31st, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

“Medicaid Works,” Foundation Declares

Medicaid improves access to care and saves lives and deserves to be expanded in the manner envisioned in the Affordable Care Act, according to a new blog entry on the web site of the health care-focused Commonwealth Fund.
According to the blog commentary, Medicaid “fulfills the two main purposes of health insurance – ensuring access to needed care and providing adequate financial protection from burdensome medical expenses.” It also cites research that “confirms that expanding Medicaid not only improves access to care and financial protection of vulnerable individuals and families, but actually saves lives.”
In addition, the blog suggests that Medicaid recipients have only slightly greater cost-related access-to-care problems than individuals with private insurance.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) and the state’s private safety-net hospitals have eagerly anticipated the expansion of Medicaid eligibility mandated by the Affordable Care Act. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision ruling the expansion mandate unconstitutional, these safety-net hospitals now await for Governor Corbett’s decision on whether Pennsylvania will move ahead with that Medicaid expansion.
The title of this commentary is “Medicaid Works: Public Program Continues to Provide Access to Care and Financial Protection for Society’s Most Vulnerable,” and it can be found here , on the Commonwealth Fund’s web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-08-29T06:00:13+00:00August 29th, 2012|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania, Uncategorized|Comments Off

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