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

SNAP Testifies About Healthy Pennsylvania

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has weighed in on Governor Corbett’s Healthy Pennsylvania health care reform and insurance expansion proposal.
Testifying at a January 9 public hearing in Harrisburg, SNAP president Michael Chirieleison expressed general support for the Healthy Pennsylvania proposal and addressed four aspects of it that safety-net hospitals would like to see improved:

extension of retroactive eligibility to the Medicaid expansion population;
including inpatient services provided to that same population as “Medicaid days” for the purpose of determining eligibility for supplemental Medicaid payments and other government programs;
reconsideration of proposed benefit limits and suspension of eligibility for non-payment of premiums; and
the addition of a Delivery System Reform Incentive Program or a similar program to support the development of health care infrastructure in communities with large numbers of low-income Pennsylvanians.

Read SNAP’s testimony here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-09T14:14:05+00:00January 9th, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Concern About Churn

State government and health insurers are worried about a process called “churning” – people moving back and forth between Medicaid and private insurers as their income changes. With more people now qualified for Medicaid, observers believe that as many as nine million people may move back and forth between Medicaid and private insurance in 2014.
In the past, people whose income rose enough to lose their Medicaid eligibility often could not afford private insurance and joined the ranks of the uninsured. Now, some will be eligible for subsidies that may enable them to purchase health insurance on their own. People who move back and forth between insurers, however, may be at risk of gaps in coverage and loss of continuity of care.
Churn may be especially prevalent in the lower-income communities served by Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.
How does churn work and what are the states doing to anticipate and address it? Learn more in this Washington Post article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-08T06:00:58+00:00January 8th, 2014|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off

Supply of Doctors to be Tested by the Newly Insured

With various aspects of the Affordable Care Act helping millions of people obtain health insurance, it remains to be seen whether there will be enough doctors to care for them.
In particular, primary care physicians, dentists, and mental health professionals could be in short supply, leaving some newly insured patients struggling to find providers to help them exercise their new access to care. Many parts of the country, in fact, have been certified by the federal government as health professional shortage areas. Pennsylvania has many health professional shortage areas and federally designated medically underserved areas.
Learn more about the potential shortage of physicians, where that problem arises, and what is being done about it in this Stateline report .

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-07T06:00:49+00:00January 7th, 2014|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off

Healthy PA Road Show Visits Philadelphia

The process of taking public input on Governor Corbett’s Healthy Pennsylvania Medicaid expansion and health care reform proposal continued last Friday with a hearing in Philadelphia.
Among those who testified before Department of Public Welfare Secretary Beverly Mackereth and other state officials were representatives of Project Home, the Cover the Commonwealth Campaign, the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, the Health Federation of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, Jefferson Health System, and Mercy Health System, the newest member of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP).
Read more about the hearing and the testimony offered in this Philadelphia Business Journal report.
The hearing was the third of six schedule sessions. Hearings already have been held in Erie and Pittsburgh; a hearing is scheduled for today, January 6, in Scranton; and hearings also will be held on January 7 in Altoona and January 9 in Harrisburg. SNAP president Michael Chirieleison will testify in Harrisburg and SNAP also will submit extensive written comments about the Healthy Pennsylvania proposal.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-06T06:00:49+00:00January 6th, 2014|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

New PA Medicaid Enrollees May be Delayed

A technical problem will result in 25,000 Pennsylvanians who were told they were eligible for Medicaid not being enrolled in the program as quickly as anticipated.
In recent months, approximately 25,000 Pennsylvanians have visited the federal healthcare.gov web site and had their eligibility for Medicaid or the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) confirmed through the site. Currently, however, the federal government is having trouble transmitting the data it received from those applicants to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. As a result, many people who believed they would be enrolled in Medicaid on January 1 are still not eligible for the state and federally medical services.
Read more about the technical problems standing between these low-income Pennsylvanians and Medicaid services in this Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-03T06:00:31+00:00January 3rd, 2014|Health care reform|Comments Off

New Members

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania is pleased to welcome two new members: Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital (Darby, PA) and Mercy Philadelphia Hospital.
Welcome!

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-02T14:34:54+00:00January 2nd, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Medicaid Applications Flowing From DC to PA

Pennsylvania is now receiving Medicaid applications from the federal government’s health insurance marketplace website.
Improvements in the healthcare.gov web site have enabled the federal government to begin sending data about Medicaid-eligible applicants to a number of states, including Pennsylvania. Until now, the data had been promised but technical problems prevented the federal government from fulfilling that promise.
Read more about the process of transforming visitors to the healthcare.gov into Pennsylvania Medicaid applicants in this Reading Eagle article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-26T06:00:04+00:00December 26th, 2013|Health care reform|Comments Off

Healthy PA Testimony in Pittsburgh

Thirty people testified at a recent public hearing in Pittsburgh as the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare continued its tour of the state seeking input on Governor Corbett’s Healthy Pennsylvania proposal and its Medicaid expansion component.
Among those who testified were both supporters and critics of the plan.
To learn more about the views expressed during the three-hour public hearing, read reports from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-24T06:00:26+00:00December 24th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Where are the Uninsured?

A new interactive map from the New York Times enables readers to explore the entire country, county by county – including all 67 counties in Pennsylvania – and see how many of each county’s residents are uninsured, how many are publicly insured, and how many are privately insured.
Find the map here.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-23T06:00:12+00:00December 23rd, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

It’s Unanimous: All PA Non-General Acute-Care Hospitals Made Money in 2012

2012 was a very good year for non-general acute-care hospitals in Pennsylvania: every single one of them scored a positive operating margin.
The winners included 19 rehabilitation hospitals, 27 long-term acute-care hospitals, and 19 non-state-operated free-standing psychiatric hospitals, according to a new report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4).
Learn more about the performance of these providers in 2012 in this PHC4 news release and this PHC4 report.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-19T09:02:13+00:00December 19th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

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