Uncategorized Archives - Page 22 of 29 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Safety-Net Hospital Finances Falling Behind Other Hospitals

While most hospitals have recovered from the worst of the recession, safety-net hospitals that were already weak before the recession now find a growing financial gap between themselves and other hospitals.
So reports the new study “Hospital Financial Performance in the Recent Recession and Implications for Institutions That Remain Financially Weak,” which was published in the May edition of Health Affairs.
According to a news release about the study,

About 28 percent of the safety-net hospitals were financially weak in 2006. While their financial performance dipped in 2008, these institutions rebounded by 2011. However, the financial gap between the safety-net hospitals and the non-safety-net hospitals continues to widen in terms of their total profit.

The release also notes the implications of this financial struggle:

On the one hand, financially weak and safety-net hospitals continue to keep their doors open. On the other hand, these institutions remain in precarious financial positions that could compromise their ability to invest in innovations or quality improvement activities that may provide value for patients.

Learn more about the study in this news release or find the study itself here, on the web site of the publication Health Affairs.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-05-14T06:00:04+00:00May 14th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Four in PA Congressional Delegation Question Medicaid Waiver Request

Four members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation have written to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to question a specific aspect of the state’s Medicaid waiver application.
In a letter to CMS deputy director Cindy Mann, House members Allyson Schwartz, Robert Brady, Chaka Fattah, and Matt Cartwright urge the federal agency to determine whether the state’s proposed approach to Medicaid expansion would “unacceptably limit beneficiaries’ access to family planning services.”
See their letter here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-04-17T14:44:48+00:00April 17th, 2014|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Uncategorized|Comments Off

2.5 Million Uninsured, Underinsured in PA

1.4 million Pennsylvanians were uninsured and another 1.1 million were underinsured in 2012, according to a new report.
The report, America’s Uninsured: A State-by-State Look at Health Insurance Affordability Prior to the New Coverage Expansions, was produced by the Commonwealth Fund.
According to the Central Penn Business Journal, the report defines “underinsured” as

those whose households spent a high share of annual income on medical care — 10 percent or more of income on medical care, excluding premiums, or 5 percent or more if income was under 200 percent of the federal poverty level. It did not include insured people who needed care but went without it because of the out-of-pocket costs they would incur or the insured who stayed healthy during the year but whose health insurance would have exposed them to high medical costs had they needed and sought care.

Read about the Commonwealth Fund study in this Central Penn Business Journal article and find the study itself here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-03-26T06:00:18+00:00March 26th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

MACPAC Recommends Steps to Ensure Continuity of Care

Citing income volatility among low-income Americans, the federal agency charged with analyzing Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has recommended that Congress adopt measures to ensure that low-income Americans retain health insurance as their income fluctuates above and below the federal poverty level.
In its March report to Congress, MACPAC (the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission) recommends that Congress empower states to extend coverage to eligible adults for an entire year to ensure that as those adults become eligible for Medicaid, lose Medicaid eligibility as their income rises, and then become eligible again because of unemployment or illness, they can maintain continuity of coverage and care.
MACPAC also recommends that Congress extend the current transitional medical assistance program so low-income parents who move into the workforce do not immediately lose their Medicaid coverage and that it eliminate the waiting period for CHIP eligibility and prohibit CHIP premiums for children from families whose income is less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level.
MACPAC is a non-partisan federal agency charged with providing policy and data analysis to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP and making recommendations to Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on a wide range of issues affecting these programs.
For more information about MACPAC’s March 2014 report and recommendations, see this MACPAC news release or find the entire report here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-03-21T06:00:49+00:00March 21st, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Bill in Congress Would Benefit PA Safety-Net Hospitals

New legislation introduced in Congress would add a risk adjustment component to Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program.
Such a measure would benefit Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.
H.R. 4188, the Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmission Program Act, proposes modifying Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program. Under the bill, hospitals’ performance in preventing Medicare readmissions would be risk-adjusted for patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid; for patients who are considered non-compliant; for patients whose readmission has been classified as based on psychosis or substance abuse; and for patients who have specific medical conditions.
Hospitals found to have too many Medicare readmissions suffer financial penalties under Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program. Recent studies suggest that in its current form, the program unfairly targets safety-net hospitals for financial penalties.
Learn more about the bill from this news release from its sponsor, Rep. James Renacci (R-Ohio), or find the bill itself here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-03-17T06:00:07+00:00March 17th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Increase Use of Value-Based Purchasing, HHS Told

A study performed for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services calls for greater use of value-based purchasing in federal health care reimbursement policy.
The study, performed by the RAND Corporation, recommends developing a national value-based purchasing strategy; developing a more deliberate approach to evaluating the effectiveness of value-based purchasing efforts; and developing performance measures that support value-based purchasing approaches.
Such an approach could be a major challenge for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals, according to a Harvard School of Public Health analysis that found that in the first year of Medicare’s value-based purchasing program, hospitals that served the largest numbers of low-income patients suffered the largest financial penalties from that program.
Read more about the RAND study in this Fierce Healthcare story and find the RAND study itself here. Read another Fierce Healthcare article about the impact of value-based purchasing on safety-net hospitals here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-03-11T06:00:25+00:00March 11th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

State Seeks Restoration of Tobacco Money

Pennsylvania has gone to court to seek the restoration of more than $200 million in tobacco funds that it lost as a result of an arbitration ruling last year.
The money, from the national master tobacco settlement agreement, is used to make Tobacco Uncompensated Care Fund payments that are vital to the state’s safety-net hospitals. The purpose of the tobacco money is to help underwrite the cost of uncompensated care provided by hospitals that serve especially large numbers of uninsured patients.
Last year an arbitration panel ruled that the state had failed to collect the tobacco taxes owed to it as part of the national tobacco settlement agreement. In its suit attempting to overturn the arbitration decision, the state maintains that the state has, in fact, collected the taxes in a manner consistent with the settlement agreement and that the tobacco companies have significant overstated how much loose tobacco they sell in Pennsylvania.
Read more about the arbitration ruling that cost Pennsylvania more than $200 million in tobacco funds and the state’s efforts to overturn that ruling in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-03-10T06:00:24+00:00March 10th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

PA Creates Long-Term-Care Commission

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has announced the creation of a New Long-Term Care Commission “to ensure access to quality, affordable health care with the signing of an Executive Order establishing the Pennsylvania Long-Term Care Commission.”
The commission’s stated mission is to “… develop recommendations focused on improving the current long-term care system, including identifying effective ways to provide a better coordinated approach to delivering services and support, and ensuring quality health care for older Pennsylvanians and individuals with physical disabilities.”
The commission is expected to deliver its findings and recommendations to the governor by December.
See the executive order creating the commission here and the news release announcing its formation here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-02-03T06:00:05+00:00February 3rd, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

The Time May Have Arrived for a Permanent “Doc Fix”

Congress appears serious about addressing a long-running problem: the need for an annual “Medicare doc fix” to address the problem stemming from the use of the sustainable growth rate formula, or SGR, to determine Medicare payments for physician services.
For years, application of the SGR called for reductions in Medicare payments to doctors, forcing Congress to apply temporary patches to the problem – and to find ways to pay for those patches.
Now, however, Congress appears intent on doing away with the SGR and fixing the problem once and for all.
But what exactly is the problem, what will it cost to fix, and how might Congress fix it? And why address it now, after years of short-term solutions? These questions and others are answered in a new Kaiser Health News FAQ, which you can find here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-20T06:00:06+00:00January 20th, 2014|Uncategorized|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

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