Eliminate Medicaid DSH Cut, SNAP Asks PA Delegation
A Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government in FY 2021 should eliminate a cut in federal Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) allotments to the states, and the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has written to the state’s congressional delegation asking its members to convey this message to congressional leaders.
The cut was mandated by the 2010 Affordable Care Act but has never been implemented.
In its letter to the delegation, SNAP wrote that
The Medicaid DSH cut was predicated on the expectation that the Affordable Care Act would greatly reduce the number of uninsured Americans, and while it has, millions remain uninsured, including nearly 700,000 Pennsylvanians – a number thought to be rising because of the job loss associated with COVID-19. When these people are sick or injured, most will turn to the state’s 41 private safety-net hospitals for care. These hospitals depend heavily on their Medicaid DSH payments to underwrite the cost of care for their uninsured patients, so they have never needed the resources afforded by Medicaid DSH more than they do today. Congress has always questioned the wisdom of this cut and has never permitted those cuts to go into effect. The most recent delay expires after November 30..
Because they serve so many uninsured and underinsured patients, Medicaid DSH payments from the state are especially important for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.
Learn more from SNAP’s Medicaid DSH letter to Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation.
In the guidance, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services explains that because of several court rulings, states can decide for themselves whether to offset third-party payer payments from costs in their Medicaid DSH calculations for periods prior to June 2, 2017 but that beginning with that date, CMS will enforce its own interpretation of the policy.
Included in this month’s edition are articles about:
Governor Wolf
The Department of Human Services (DHS) has published a reminder that 
During her daily briefing today, Secretary Levine reported that the number of new COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania yesterday declined slightly from the day before, although she dismissed this decline as “not statistically significant.” There are now COVID-19 cases in 50 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. While the number of hospitalizations, ICU cases, and patients put on ventilators remain low, she said those numbers remain in line with trends elsewhere in the country and her department’s own projections.
The Department of Health and Human Services has provided guidance to states asking them to take immediate action to 
The FDA established 
The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) has issued a document clarifying the state’s response to federal guidance on the disclosure of patients’ substance abuse disorder records during the telehealth process. See that policy clarification 
Since yesterday, the Department of Human Services has issued the following four new guidance documents:
The following summary of PA legislative actions was compiled by Cynthia Fernandez of Spotlight PA and Gillian McGoldrick of Lancaster Online.
CMS Catastrophic Plan Coverage Guidance 
United Healthcare, with 57,000 Medicaid members in the city, has placed six homeless members with multiple health problems into apartments in the city – it plans to add four more – and is spending between $1200 and $1800 a month on rent and wrapround services. Its theory: with one percent of the population accounting for 22 percent of annual health care spending nation-wide, helping some of that one percent could improve lives while saving a great deal of money.