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

PA Hospitals Doing Better, PHC4 Reports

The financial performance of Pennsylvania’s acute-care hospitals improved in 2011, according to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.
While hospitals’ uncompensated care rose 11.2 percent, to $990 million, the state-wide average operating margin rose from 4.37 percent to 5.58 percent, according to Financial Analysis 2011, Volume One, Acute Care Hospitals. Hospitals’ net income rose $769 million, to $2.69 billion, with 72 percent of that improvement coming from operating income.
Find PHC4’s news release and the report itself, which includes an industry-wide analysis as well as detailed information about the financial performance of every Pennsylvania acute-care hospital, here on PHC4’s web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-18T06:00:04+00:00May 18th, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

MAAC to Meet

The next meeting of Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance Advisory Committee (MAAC) will be held on Thursday, May 24 in Harrisburg. The MAAC advises the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare on Medicaid policy. Its meetings are open to the public.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-17T06:00:41+00:00May 17th, 2012|Meetings and notices|Comments Off

Readmissions and Poverty

At a time when Medicare and many state Medicaid programs are attempting to penalize hospitals when patients are readmitted shortly after they were discharged, researchers have found that some of those readmissions are linked to factors beyond hospitals’ control.
According to research presented recently at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care & Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2012, differences in regional readmission rates are more closely tied to socioeconomic factors and access to care than they are to hospitals’ performance.
Researchers found that nine percent of regional variation in hospital readmission rates can be tied to patients’ poverty. Access to care, based on the availability of doctors and hospital beds, can be tied to 17 percent of regional variation in readmission rates.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has long maintained that the low-income patients safety-net hospitals serve in especially large numbers come to them fundamentally sicker than typical hospital patients and require more resources and more effort to treat. This research appears to support this contention.
Read more about the research in this news release from the American Hospital Association.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-14T09:25:32+00:00May 14th, 2012|Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Access to Care Declines

Non-elderly and uninsured adults have less access to health care than they did ten years ago, according to a new study released by the Urban Institute.
The study, “Virtually Every State Experienced Deteriorating Access to Care for Adults Over the Past Decade,” also concluded that this deterioration of access can be found in almost every state, is even worse for the uninsured, and is especially great in states with the highest uninsured rates.
Learn more about this erosion of the health care safety net and download the entire report here , on the Urban Institute’s web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-11T06:00:23+00:00May 11th, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Medicaid Raises Doc Pay

Primary care physicians serving Medicaid patients will receive a raise in their fees for the next two years.
The raises, a temporary measure mandated by the Affordable Care Act, will be in effect for calendar years 2013 and 2014 and will raise Medicaid’s primary care physician fees to the same level paid by Medicare for comparable services.
The $11 billion needed to pay for this raise will come from the federal government. States will not be required to provide matching funds.
Read a news release from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) about the new Medicaid primary care fee here, a CMS fact sheet here, and the newly proposed regulation here .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-10T10:13:00+00:00May 10th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Impact of Reform

Health care reform is having a significant impact on entities throughout central Pennsylvania according to a recent article in the Central Penn Business Journal.
The article examines the impact of reform from several perspectives, including those of businesses, employers, insurers, providers, benefit brokers, and lawyers. Read about it in greater detail in this Central Penn Business Journal article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-08T06:00:18+00:00May 8th, 2012|Health care reform|Comments Off

Newborn Pay Cut

Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance program will no longer pay hospitals for care they provide to normal newborns delivered by patients who participate in the state’s fee-for-service program.
This policy change, which took effect on May 1, will have a greater impact on Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals than on other hospitals because safety-net hospitals are involved in far more Medicaid-covered deliveries than other hospitals – two-thirds of such births according to the recent SNAP report Pennsylvania’s Safety-Net Hospitals: Vital Providers, Vital Employers, which you can find here.
The policy change governing how Medicaid will pay hospitals for the care they provide to normal newborns is described in greater detail in a May 4 Medical Assistance Bulletin, which you can read here .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-07T06:00:56+00:00May 7th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Medicaid Info

The April 2012 edition of the Pennsylvania Health Law Project’s monthly newsletter Senior Health News includes information about the state’s Medical Assistance Transportation Program, an increase in selected Medicaid co-pays, the expansion of the state’s HealthChoices program, and dual-eligibles. Read about these issues and more here , on the web site of the Pennsylvania Health Law Project.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-04T06:00:36+00:00May 4th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Revenue Boost Offers Hope

Higher-than-expected state revenue collections offer hope that the Pennsylvania General Assembly may support the restoration of some of the Medical Assistance cuts included in Governor Tom Corbett’s proposed FY 2013 state budget.
The state’s revenue shortfall for the year was projected to be more than $700 million, but by the end of April, unexpectedly strong revenues have reduced the current shortfall to less than half that amount with only two months left in the state’s fiscal year. The restoration of proposed spending cuts has always hinged this year on better-than-anticipated collections, so the state’s strong revenue picture may free up enough money for some restoration – including, possibly, of some proposed Medicaid spending cuts.
Restoration would benefit Pennsylvania’s high-volume Medicaid providers and its 57 private safety-net hospitals.
Read more about the state’s revenue picture and its implications for the governor’s proposed budget and the prospect of some Medical Assistance spending cut restoration in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-03T06:00:59+00:00May 3rd, 2012|Pennsylvania state budget issues|Comments Off

Readmissions Report

The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) has issued a new report on hospital readmissions.
Health care reform efforts at both the state and federal levels have targeted avoidable hospital readmissions as major causes of rising health care costs. In issuing the report, PHC4 notes that not all readmissions are preventable.
Preventing readmissions is a particular challenge for Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals because of the difficulties many low-income patients have complying with their post-discharge medical instructions.
Read more about the report and download Hospital Readmissions in Pennsylvania 2010 here , on the PHC4 web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-05-02T06:00:37+00:00May 2nd, 2012|Health care reform, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

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