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.
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
.
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.
Welcome to the new web site of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania. Here you can learn more about SNAP: who we are, what we stand for, the issues that are important to us, and how we advocate the interests of the private, acute-care hospitals that play the greatest role in caring for low-income Pennsylvanians.
We invite you to spend some time exploring our site and to return often. In this space we will present information relevant to anyone who is interested in the state’s safety-net hospitals, the Pennsylvania Medicaid program that insures so many of their patients, and how public policy in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. affects the ability of these safety-net hospitals to serve their communities.
Safety-net hospitals fulfill a vital role as employers in Pennsylvania’s economy. SNAP’s latest research found that safety-net hospitals employ more people in comparison to other hospitals, pay better wages than non-hospital jobs across the commonwealth, and provide an important measure of economic stability in communities across Pennsylvania.
At a time when cuts have been proposed in Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance program, it is important that state policy-makers understand how reducing such spending could undermine the economies in already-troubled communities across the state. Take a closer look at the impact of Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals on the state’s economy in the SNAP report “Pennsylvania’s Safety-Net Hospitals: Vital Providers, Vital Employers.”