Proposed FY 2014 Pennsylvania state budget Archives - Page 2 of 2

The Proposed FY 2014 State Budget: Part 3 of 7

Hospital Assessment Revenue

Last Tuesday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett unveiled his proposed state FY 2014 budget. Later that day, members of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) received a comprehensive memo outlining the governor’s budget proposal with an emphasis on the issues that matter most to the state’s 61 private safety-net hospitals.
Over a seven-day period, SNAP presents in this space the highlights of the governor’s budget, again with an emphasis on Medical Assistance and other matters of special interest to Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals. Today, SNAP takes a look at what the proposed budget says about revenue from the state-wide and Philadelphia hospital assessments.
The proposed budget assumes $633 million in revenue from the state-wide hospital assessment and another $148 million from the Philadelphia hospital assessment. While the revenue anticipated from the Philadelphia assessment appears to be in line with prior years’ collections, the revenue associated with the state-wide assessment appear to be greater than in the past. It is unclear whether this apparent increase reflects the state’s intention either to increase its share of assessment revenue or to raise the assessment rate.
Tomorrow: Medical Assistance Supplemental Payments

PA Safety Net Admin2013-02-14T06:00:06+00:00February 14th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues, Proposed FY 2014 Pennsylvania state budget, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

The Proposed FY 2014 State Budget: Part 2 of 7

The Major Medical Assistance Spending Categories

Last Tuesday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett unveiled his proposed state FY 2014 budget. Later that day, members of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) received a comprehensive memo outlining the governor’s budget proposal with an emphasis on the issues that matter most to the state’s 61 private safety-net hospitals.
Over a seven-day period, SNAP presents in this space the highlights of the governor’s budget, again with an emphasis on Medical Assistance and other matters of special interest to Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals. Today, SNAP takes a look at what the proposed budget says about the major Medical Assistance spending categories.
The proposed budget calls for what on the surface appear to be sizeable decreases in state funds available for Medical Assistance inpatient and outpatient funding – a decrease of 44.9 percent in inpatient and 31.6 percent in outpatient funding. What this actually represents, however, is the state’s continued shift toward greater use of managed care through its expanded HealthChoices program, which has been budgeted for a 5.7 percent increase in funding. Overall, the combined changes in the inpatient, outpatient, and capitation lines of the proposed budget represent a 1.4 percent decrease in the amount of state money available for physical health services.

Click on the accompanying chart to see the proposed changes in the state’s funding allocations for the major categories of Medical Assistance physical health spending from FY 2013 to FY 2014.
Tomorrow: Hospital Assessment Revenue

PA Safety Net Admin2013-02-13T06:00:22+00:00February 13th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues, Proposed FY 2014 Pennsylvania state budget, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

The Proposed FY 2014 Pennsylvania State Budget: Part 1 of 7

The Big Picture

Last Tuesday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett unveiled his proposed state FY 2014 budget. Later that day, members of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) received a comprehensive memo outlining the governor’s budget proposal with an emphasis on the issues that matter most to the state’s 61 private safety-net hospitals.
Over the next seven business days, SNAP will present the highlights of the governor’s budget, again with an emphasis on Medical Assistance and other matters of special interest to Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.
The following is a schedule of the remaining six parts of this overview:

Today: the big picture underlying the proposed budget.
In this proposed budget, the Department of Public Welfare (DPW) projects a three percent increase in Medical Assistance enrollment and caseload in FY 2014. Overall, the DPW budget calls for $14.2 billion in total spending on Medical Assistance – a decrease of less than half a percent from the current fiscal year’s available funding.
While some of the proposed changes in the budget are spending decisions, others reflect a reduction in the state’s federal medical assistance percentage, or FMAP (the rate at which the federal government matches state Medicaid spending), which will fall from its current 54.28 percent to an estimated 53.52 percent during FY 2014. Consequently, in some cases, lower payments would reflect a reduced federal contribution rather than a state decision to reduce those payments.
The major themes of next year’s proposed Medical Assistance budget appear to be a continued state-wide expansion of the HealthChoices Medical Assistance managed care program and expanded access to community-based services for individuals with intellectual disabilities and the elderly.
The budget does not provide for the Medicaid expansion envisioned in the Affordable Care Act. Governor Corbett has conveyed to the federal government that he will not expand Medicaid eligibility at this time but his document states that such expansion will be the subject of further analysis and public discussion.
Tomorrow: The Major Medical Assistance Spending Categories

PA Safety Net Admin2013-02-12T06:00:58+00:00February 12th, 2013|Medicaid supplemental payments, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues, Proposed FY 2014 Pennsylvania state budget, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania, Uncategorized|Comments Off

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