Pennsylvania state budget issues Archives - Page 5 of 5 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

New PA Health Law Project Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has just published its June/July “Health Law PA News” newsletter. The latest edition includes articles about the recently passed state Medical Assistance budget, the implications of the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act decision for Pennsylvania, changes in state human resources funding, a delay in HealthChoices expansion in western Pennsylvania, and the lawsuit to compel the state to reinstitute the AdultBasic program.
Read the newsletter here .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-07-16T06:00:50+00:00July 16th, 2012|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues|Comments Off

SNAP’s Perspective on PA’s Budget

The state budget passed in Harrisburg last week represents both a victory for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals and an affirmation of the manner in which the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has pursued its advocacy on behalf of the state’s safety-net hospitals.
Under this budget, and despite still-difficult economic times, safety-net hospitals came away almost entirely unharmed by state spending cuts.
The genesis of this success can be traced back to February, when Governor Corbett unveiled his proposed budget. After years of SNAP’s vigorous advocacy that emphasized urging state officials to direct the state’s scarce resources to their primary partners in caring for Medical Assistance patients – Pennsylvania’s private safety-net hospitals – this year’s budget proposal did exactly that. Instead of the usual proposals to cut Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) and other supplemental payments that only safety-net hospitals receive, the administration proposed spreading the potential financial pain to all hospitals, as exemplified by its original proposal to cut fee-for-service hospital base rate payments four percent while leaving the most critical supplemental payments untouched.
This proposal gave every hospital in the state, not just safety-net hospitals, a stake in opposing the proposed cuts. This brought the entire hospital industry together to oppose those cuts. This unified effort proved successful – vindication, we believe, of SNAP’s long-time approach to advocating the distinct interests of Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-07-05T13:16:19+00:00July 5th, 2012|Medicaid supplemental payments, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Budget Brings Good News for PA Safety-Net Hospitals

The new state budget passed in Harrisburg last weekend restored cuts to key payments to Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.
Although the budget proposed by Governor Corbett in February called for a four percent cut in fee-for-service hospital base rate payments, that cut was restored – as were mid-year cuts to OB/NICU, burn center, and trauma center payments, which were restored to their FY 2012 enacted levels.
In addition, the budget increased payments to critical access hospitals and restored payments to academic medical centers and physician practice plans.
The budget also restored funding for separate fee-for-service payments for normal newborn care, thereby rescinding at least for FY 2013 an expedited regulation promulgated by the Department of Public Welfare that would have eliminated payments for such services.
For further information about Pennsylvania’s FY 2013 Medical Assistance budget and its implications for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals, please contact Michael Chirieleison, SNAP’s president, at 717-234-6970 or mike@debrunner.us.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-07-02T16:24:34+00:00July 2nd, 2012|Medicaid supplemental payments, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues|Comments Off

If the Affordable Care Act Survives Legal Challenges…

$2 billion in extra costs over the first five years. 750,000 new recipients.
These are some of the changes that can be expected in Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program if the Medicaid expansion component of the Affordable Care Act is left standing after the Supreme Court rules on the legal challenge to the landmark health care reform legislation.
The online publication PA Independent takes a look at the implications of Medicaid expansion for Pennsylvania: implications for the state’s finances, for potential beneficiaries, and for public health. Read the article here .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-06-26T06:00:27+00:00June 26th, 2012|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues|Comments Off

Newspaper Joins Call for Restoring Newborn Payments

Last month, Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance program stopped paying hospitals for the inpatient care they provide to healthy babies newly born to Medical Assistance-covered mothers. The hospital industry – including the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) – immediately expressed opposition to this new policy and has continued to seek the restoration of these payments as the state legislature considers Pennsylvania’s fiscal year 2013 budget.
Now, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has weighed in on this issue – on the side of the hospital industry and the low-income patients it serves – with an editorial entitled “Dropping the baby: DPW is wrong to cut newborns’ hospital care.” Read that editorial here.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-06-11T06:00:13+00:00June 11th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

DPW Launches “Open Government” Web Site

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW) has launched a new “transparency portal” on its web site through which the public can obtain a broad array of DPW information and data.
The available information includes facility and program audits, Medical Assistance fee schedules and payments, and individual provider reimbursement data.
The reimbursement data is especially broad, offering detailed information about state Medical Assistance payments to individual providers.
Read a DPW news release about the new DPW web site feature here and visit the site itself through this link .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-06-01T14:58:49+00:00June 1st, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues|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

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

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.”