Uncategorized Archives - Page 26 of 29 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

PA Officials Estimate Sequestration’s Impact

Now that federal budget sequestration has taken effect, Pennsylvania state officials are busy calculating its potential effects on various health-related state activities.
As part of planning for sequestration, officials have developed estimates in a wide variety of areas, including cuts in substance abuse programs, meals for low-income seniors, food programs, immunizations, AIDS/HIV screenings, medical tests for women and children, and more. They also are looking at how much Pennsylvania health care organizations will lose in research funding and how many jobs might be lost across the state as a result of significant reductions in federal spending under sequestration.
For Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals, the biggest problem will be a two percent cut in all Medicare payments.
For a closer look at the anticipated impact of sequestration on these and other aspects of health care spending in Pennsylvania, see this article in the Pittsburgh Business Times.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-03-04T06:00:17+00:00March 4th, 2013|Uncategorized|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

Medicaid Safe, White House Aide Says

While the Obama administration is willing to discuss further Medicare cuts as part of a broader effort to reduce federal spending, it opposes any further cuts in Medicaid, according to a White House aide.
Speaking at a Families USA conference, economic advisor Gene Sperling explained that the administration now opposes even the Medicaid cuts it proposed last year but is willing to negotiate changes in Medicare that could result in reduced spending on that program.
Read more about the White House’s emerging priorities in this article from The Hill.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-02-04T06:00:00+00:00February 4th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Corbett Appoints eHealth Partnership Authority Members

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has appointed members to the state’s new eHealth Partnership Authority.
The authority replaces the PA eHealth Collaborative. Its job is to oversee the development of technology-based means to facilitate the safe, confidential exchange of health information among providers.
Read the governor’s news release and see a list of the members of the authority here .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-01-24T06:00:27+00:00January 24th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Greater Cost-Sharing in Medicaid’s Future?

States would be permitted to require greater cost-sharing from Medicaid recipients under a new regulation proposed by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The proposed regulation, which also addresses matters involving state Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) and health insurance exchanges, would permit states to impose increased co-pays for non-emergency use of hospital emergency rooms and for non-preferred prescription drugs. The cost-sharing for non-emergency use of emergency rooms would be limited to eight dollars for Medicaid recipients with incomes between 100 percent to 150 percent of the federal poverty level but would have no limit for those whose income is beyond 150 percent of the federal poverty level.
Cost-sharing requirements of low-income patients pose a particular challenge for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals. Many of their Medicaid patients cannot afford larger co-payments and often leave the hospital without paying them, thereby increasing hospitals’ bad debt.
Interested parties have until February 13 to submit comments to CMS about the proposed regulation.
Read a CMS fact sheet on the proposed regulation and find a link to the regulation itself here , on the CMS web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-01-15T12:25:35+00:00January 15th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Western PA Hospitals Worry About Fiscal Cliff, Part 2

No sooner did hospitals in western Pennsylvania breathe a sigh of relief over escaping the worst possible scenarios in the fiscal cliff crisis than they looked ahead and saw the fiscal cliff sequel: March 1, when all Medicare payments will be cut two percent unless Congress acts to prevent that reduction.
With Medicare accounting for 40 percent, 50 percent, and even 60 percent of revenue in some western Pennsylvania hospitals, providers are concerned about the impact the two percent sequester could have on their overall financial health.
Such a loss would be especially hard to bear for the area’s safety-net hospitals, which typically have fewer insured patients than other hospitals and therefore are more dependent on their Medicare revenue.
Learn more about why western Pennsylvania hospitals are concerned about March 1 in this Pittsburgh Business Times article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-01-09T06:00:09+00:00January 9th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Will Fiscal Cliff Deal Make Medicaid, Medicare More Vulnerable?

The relative lack of spending cuts included in the fiscal cliff/Medicare doc fix deal passed by Congress last week could increase the pressure to reduce costs in key safety-net programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Or so some policy analysts believe.
Many members of Congress supported the fiscal cliff bill only reluctantly because of it lacked the bigger spending cuts they sought, the thinking goes. Now, with another fiscal cliff deadline looming on March 1, when the previously passed sequestration law takes effect, many who compromised last week will be demanding bigger cuts in exchange for their vote.
As a result, Medicare and Medicaid, two of the federal government’s fastest-growing expenses, are expected to be targets for those in search of cuts. In addition, Medicare has proven to be among the first places many officials look in their search for savings.
Any attempt to implement additional reductions in Medicaid and Medicare, beyond those already scheduled to take effect through the Affordable Care Act and last week’s fiscal cliff bill, would be especially damaging to Pennsylvania’s private safety-net hospitals.
Read more about how last week’s budget solution is far from the end of the threat to Medicare and Medicaid in this Boston Globe article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-01-08T06:00:47+00:00January 8th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Insurance Commissioner Explains Why PA Rejected Health Exchange

Writing in the Pottstown Mercury, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Consedine has outlined why the Corbett administration chose not to develop the health insurance exchange that is one of the centerpieces of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Consedine’s explanation mirrors that offered last month by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett: the federal government did not provide enough information and guidance to enable the state to develop its own exchange. (Go here for a summary of Governor Corbett’s op-ed piece and a direct link to that piece.)
As a result of this decision, Pennsylvania will use a health insurance exchange developed for it by the federal government.
Read Mr. Consedine’s guest column in the Pottstown Mercury here.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-01-03T06:00:13+00:00January 3rd, 2013|Health care reform, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Medicare Reveals First Results of Quality Program

Slightly more than half of all U.S. hospitals will receive enhanced payments from Medicare and slightly fewer than half will see their payments reduced slightly as a result of the first reporting period for Medicare’s new value-based purchasing program.
The largest bonus will be awarded to Treasure Valley Hospital, in Utah. Each of its Medicare payments will rise 0.83 percent. The largest penalty will be assessed to Auburn Community Hospital, in Syracuse, which will see its Medicare payments reduced 0.9 percent. Two-thirds of all hospitals will see their payments rise or fall less than 0.25 percent.
Medicare’s value-based purchasing program, created by the Affordable Care Act, seeks to enhance provider accountability for the care they deliver. Seventy percent of a hospital’s score is based on its performance according to 12 basic standards of care and the rest of the score is based on the results of patient satisfaction surveys.
The program will be expanded in the coming years to encompass more standards of care. A companion program, based on Medicare readmissions within 30 days of patient discharge, is already under way and rewarding top performance and penalizing underperforming hospitals.
According to the figures released, 51 percent of Pennsylvania hospitals will receive bonuses through the value-based purchasing program and 49 percent will be penalized. Between the two programs – the value-based purchasing program and the readmissions reduction program – 20 percent of Pennsylvania hospitals will see a net increase in payments and the remaining 80 percent either broke even or will see their payments reduced.
Read more about the quality program in this Kaiser Health News report , which also offers links to lists of the results for every hospital in the country for both the Medicare value-based purchasing and readmissions reduction programs.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-12-31T06:00:30+00:00December 31st, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Medicaid at Risk in Fiscal Cliff Talks

If Medicaid is a health care program for at-risk low-income people, it appears that Medicaid itself is at risk during the current fiscal cliff talks in Washington, D.C.
While Medicaid was left untouched by last year’s sequestration bill, it is now viewed by growing numbers of policy-makers as a potential source of savings to help stave off the fiscal cliff.
Several aspects of Medicaid, in particular, appear to be vulnerable in the coming weeks. They include Medicaid provider taxes, which are incurring growing opposition in Washington and which, if ratcheted back, could save more than $25 billion; supplemental payments for Medicaid primary care providers, scheduled to take effect on January 1, which if eliminated would save $13 billion; better management of dual eligibles, which could save $12 billion; and medical equipment spending, where a competitive bidding program similar to that currently being introduced for Medicare could save $5 billion.
While all of these cuts would hurt Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals, those hospitals would particularly be affected by any reduction in either the rate at which the federal government matches the state’s Medicaid expenditures or in its ability to levy provider taxes, which are a key contributor to the financial foundation of the state’s Medicaid program.
Learn more about how Medicaid figures in the current fiscal cliff talks and how policy-makers are increasingly looking to Medicaid for savings in this Politico article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-12-17T06:00:28+00:00December 17th, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

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