Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals Archives - Page 13 of 20 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Hospitals Worry About Underpayments as Medicaid Expands in PA

The Healthy Pennsylvania Medicaid expansion will bring Medicaid payments that often fall below hospital costs, potentially causing problems for hospitals that serve especially large numbers of new Medicaid beneficiaries.
While hospitals acknowledge that in some cases they will, under the program, start receiving payments for care they otherwise might have provided without any reimbursement at all, they note that the payments they expect from Healthy PA private insurers will fail to cover the cost of the care they provide in many cases.
The problem is especially acute when it comes to payment for outpatient services, which may cover only about 30 percent of the cost of outpatient care.
Because they serve so many Medicaid patients, this situation is likely to pose an especially great challenge for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.
For a look at the challenges hospitals expect under the Healthy PA Medicaid expansion and the effect it may have on their bottom line, see this Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-12-11T06:00:55+00:00December 11th, 2014|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Homelessness and Safety-Net Hospitals

Homeless people with serious medical problems are more likely than others to be readmitted to hospitals – and especially, to safety-net hospitals – during their convalescence from illnesses and injuries.
This is one of the conclusions in the recently published Journal of Community Health Nursing article “Assessing the Needs for a Medical Respite: Perceptions of Service Providers and Homeless Persons.”
According the study, homeless people lack safe places to convalesce. Shelters do not suffice, the study found, because they are not open around the clock and lack staff qualified to support recovery. The homeless also report that their drugs are often stolen in shelters and they are vulnerable to infections while staying in them.
As a result, many of these patients end up being readmitted to the safety-net hospitals that originally treated them – often, for extended periods of time. Among others, this poses a real challenge for Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals because they serve so many more homeless patients than the typical hospital.
In more than 70 cities across the country, respite care facilities have been established to serve the homeless recovering from serious injuries and illnesses.
Learn more about the challenges facing homeless patients and the role safety-net hospitals play in addressing those challenges in this Dallas Morning News story and find the Journal of Community Health Nursing article here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-12-09T06:00:10+00:00December 9th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Feds Release Medicaid DSH “Uninsured” Definition

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published a new regulation that defines “uninsured” for the purpose of calculating the limit for how much individual hospitals may receive in Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments (Medicaid DSH).
Under federal law, Medicaid DSH payments to hospitals cannot exceed the uncompensated costs of the services those hospitals provide to Medicaid recipients and the uninsured. In calculating hospital-specific limits, according to the new regulation,

… the calculation of uncompensated care for purposes of the hospital-specific DSH limit will include the cost of each service furnished to an individual by that hospital for which the individual had no health insurance or other source of third party coverage.

This regulation is important to Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals because they receive Medicaid DSH payments and serve more uninsured patients than the typical hospital.
Find the complete regulation here, in the Federal Register.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-12-08T06:00:42+00:00December 8th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Administration Delays Major 340B Program Regulation

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has decided against releasing a long-awaited regulation that was expected to bring sweeping changes to the federal government’s 340B Drug Pricing Program.
The 340B program requires drug manufacturers to sell drugs at a discount to hospitals and other providers that serve especially large proportions of low-income patients. While providers believe the program enables them to serve more vulnerable patients at a reasonable cost, drug companies have argued that the federal government has expanded the program to include more providers and more drugs than the program originally envisioned.
A spokesman for the federal Health Resources and Services administration told Bloomberg BNA that the release has been delayed until next year and that the agency

…plans to issue a proposed guidance for notice and comment that will address key policy issues raised by various stakeholders committed to the integrity of the 340B program. HRSA is also planning to issue proposed regulations where the statute provides explicit rulemaking authority, pertaining to civil monetary penalties for manufacturers, calculation of the 340B ceiling price, and administrative dispute resolution.

Because they serve so many low-income patients and typically participate in the 340B program, Pennsylvania’s private safety-net hospitals have a great deal of interest in any attempt by the federal government to alter the scope or regulation of the program.

To learn more about the delay in the anticipated 340B regulation, see this Bloomberg BNA article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-11-24T06:00:26+00:00November 24th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

No-Hospitalization Group Plans To Be Banned

Companies will no longer be able to provide their employees with group health insurance plans that do not cover inpatient hospitalization.
This news came in a recent notice published by the Internal Revenue Service.
Recently, many large employers with lower-wage workers were purchasing low-cost health insurance that does not cover hospitalization. The IRS, however, has ruled that such plans do not meet the Affordable Care Act’s minimum value threshold. Companies were only able to purchase such plans because they are not required meet the reform law’s essential health benefits package requirement, which applies only to plans offered to individuals on health insurance exchanges.
The no-hospitalization policies were likely to leave many lower-income workers without the coverage they needed – and with large medical bills. They also were likely to leave hospitals with unexpected uncompensated care. This could have proven especially challenging for Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals because they serve larger numbers of lower-income workers than the typical hospital.
The administration is permitting employers that committed to such plans by November 4 to use them for one year and is offering affected workers access to premium subsidies that some of those workers did not otherwise have if they choose to purchase insurance on an exchange instead.
The IRS will issue regulations formalizing this policy next year.
To learn more about this issue and its implications for large businesses, low-wage workers, and hospitals, see this Kaiser Health News report. Go here to see the IRS notice.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-11-11T06:00:31+00:00November 11th, 2014|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off

Medicaid Directors Weigh in On Managed Care Regulation

The nation’s state Medicaid directors have offered their perspectives to the federal government on how to modernize and regulate state Medicaid managed care programs.
In a paper entitled “Medicaid Managed Care Modernization: Advancing Quality Improvement,” the National Association of Medicaid Directors urges the Centers for Medicare Services (CMS) to work with the states to develop quality reporting measures that are both useful and not overly burdensome.
The association also asks CMS to leave decisions about accrediting requirements for state Medicaid managed care programs in state hands and not to establish a national quality rating system for Medicaid managed care plans.
The regulation of Medicaid managed care plans is especially important to Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals because they care for so many Medicaid patients and managed care has become the primary means through which the state’s Medicaid program serves those patients.
Learn more about Medicaid directors’ recommendations for improving and regulating state Medicaid managed care programs in this National Association of Medicaid Directors correspondence with the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-10-27T06:00:19+00:00October 27th, 2014|Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Teaching Hospitals Pitch More Residencies

With the country facing a physician shortage and the number of medical residencies capped by the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (because Medicare and Medicaid provide the primary funding for the residencies), teaching hospitals need an additional 4000 residency slots a year.
This was the message conveyed recently to a gathering of congressional aides co-sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
This issue is of interest to Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals, some of which are teaching hospitals.
Such an increase would cost $10 billion over the next ten years.
Learn more about the case for more residency slots in this Kaiser Health News article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-10-09T06:00:10+00:00October 9th, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

MACPAC Looks at Medicaid, CHIP Issues

The non-partisan federal agency charged with advising Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on matters involving Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) met last week in Washington, D.C.
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) addressed a number of CHIP-related issues during its September 18-19 meetings, including the future of the program, its funding, state experiences with CHIP changes, and consumer protections.
MACPAC also looked at a variety of Medicaid issues, including state Medicaid expansions through premium assistance, enrollment so far in 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Medicaid program integrity plan, early experiences of new enrollees, and future reductions in Medicaid disproportionate share payments (Medicaid DSH).
CHIP and Medicaid are especially important for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals because they serve so many low-income patients. Those hospitals also are very concerned about future reductions in Medicaid DSH payments.
For a summary of the commission’s deliberations, see this CQ HealthBeat article presented by the Commonwealth Fund.
To see the presentations made during the two-day session go here, to MACPAC’s web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-09-23T06:00:28+00:00September 23rd, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Medicaid Patients are High Users But Not Abusers of ER Services, Report Says

Medicaid patients use hospital emergency rooms more frequently than privately insured and uninsured patients but are not overusing or abusing ER services.
So says the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) in a recent report that contradicts the widely held belief that Medicaid patients abuse hospital ER services.
According to “Revisiting Emergency Department Use in Medicaid,” “Higher ED use among Medicaid enrollees is explained mostly by the higher rates and more severe cases of chronic disease and disability they experience relative to those who are privately insured and uninsured.”
In addition, MACPAC found, “High ED use also can be a sign of poor access to primary, specialty, dental, and outpatient mental health care in other settings.” In 2012, for example, “…about one in four adult Medicaid enrollees who reported a recent visit to the ED went there because of difficulty accessing another provider, not because of a serious health problem.”
MACPAC also concluded that “The majority of ED visits by non-elderly Medicaid patients are for urgent symptoms and serious medical problems that require prompt medical attention…Non-urgent visits account for just 10 percent of all Medicaid-covered ED visits for non-elderly patients, a proportion comparable to that of privately insured patients.”
Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals serve far more Medicaid patients than the typical acute-care hospital and therefore face far greater challenges in meeting these patients’ needs.
Learn more about MACPAC’s findings in “Revisiting Emergency Department Use in Medicaid,” which can be found here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-09-02T06:00:03+00:00September 2nd, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Charity Care? Wait a Minute

Many hospitals are considering whether they should continue to provide charity care to people who were eligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies to purchase health insurance but chose instead to remain uninsured.
The issue for many is whether the availability of charity care is an inducement for some people not to purchase health insurance and whether such patients are unwilling or unable to pay for care.
Some hospitals have decided not to provide non-emergency charity care to those who chose not to purchase subsidized health insurance. Others are currently considering whether they need to revise their approach to charity care. Still others have decided that they will not change their charity care policies.
Charity care is an especially critical issue for the state’s safety-net hospitals because they serve so many more low-income and uninsured patients than the typical Pennsylvania hospital.
Learn more about this latest phase in the evolution of charity care and how hospitals are approaching it in this Kaiser Health News report.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-08-28T06:00:40+00:00August 28th, 2014|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off

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