Pennsylvania Archives - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Medical Malpractice Suits Fall in PA

Since new laws designed to reduce the number of medical malpractice suits in Pennsylvania were passed in 2003 and 2004, the number of such suits has been cut in half.
Last year, 1463 medical malpractice suits were filed in Pennsylvania. In 2002, 2904 such suits were initiated.
And possibly related, the number of physicians practicing medicine in Pennsylvania has risen – a development that follows a nation-wide trend but is doing so at a rate that exceeds the growth in the number of doctors in other states.
To learn more about what Pennsylvania did to reduce medical malpractice lawsuits, how those laws are working, and how this may or may not be affecting the state’s supply of practicing physicians, see this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-05-21T06:00:46+00:00May 21st, 2015|Uncategorized|Comments Off

PA Wins Innovation Planning Grant

Pennsylvania is among 21 states that will receive State Innovation Models Initiative Model Design Awards from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
The award of $3 million will be used to

…engage a diverse group of stakeholders, including public and commercial payers, providers and consumers, to develop a State Health Care Innovation Plan.

The purpose of the state innovation models program is to support

…states that are prepared for or committed to planning, designing, testing, and supporting evaluation of new payment and service delivery models in the context of larger health system transformation. The Innovation Center is interested in testing innovative payment and service delivery models that have the potential to lower costs for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), while maintaining or improving quality of care for program beneficiaries.

The grant funds were awarded on a competitive basis, with funding decisions based on an initial round of state innovation model planning. Michael Chirieleison, president of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP), served on the committee that developed the commonwealth’s state innovation model proposal.
Learn more about the federal State Innovation Models Initiative here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-12-24T06:00:48+00:00December 24th, 2014|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

New Approaches to Serving Dual Eligibles Set to Launch

Provisions in the Affordable Care Act that encourage states to take new approaches to serving their dually eligible residents – low-income seniors eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid – will soon translate into new state programs.
Massachusetts has already launched such an initiative, a new California program will begin in May, and 17 additional states are scheduled to begin new efforts later this year and next.
New federal policies encourage state Medicaid programs to work with Medicare in service to their dually eligible population, with the states and Medicare sharing in the savings they produce. Currently, dually eligible patients constitute 15 percent of the Medicaid population but account for 40 percent of Medicaid’s costs and 20 percent of the Medicare population but 30 percent of Medicare’s costs.
Eighteen percent of Pennsylvania’s Medicaid population is dually eligible. The state is not among those with new dual eligibles programs preparing to launch.
How are states tackling this challenge? Learn more in this Stateline report.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-02-18T06:00:56+00:00February 18th, 2014|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|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

PA Welfare Secretary Testifies About Medicaid Expansion

Declaring that “We in the commonwealth have never witnessed a law so vast, with such demands on state resources, and lack of federal guidance,” Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Secretary Gary Alexander told the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week that while Pennsylvania has not ruled out expanding its Medicaid program in accordance with the Affordable Care Act, “Under the constraints of the health care reform law, I do not think we can afford the expansion.”
Mr. Alexander made these remarks at a hearing of the committee’s Health Subcommittee, which was taking testimony on the Medicaid expansion component of the 2010 health care reform law.
While the Kaiser Foundation on Medicaid and the Uninsured says that expansion would cost Pennsylvania $2 billion through 2022, the Corbett administration has put a $4 billion price tag on such expansion.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the state.
Read more about Mr. Alexander’s testimony in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article and this Central Penn Business Journal article, which also includes a direct link to the secretary’s testimony.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-12-18T06:00:03+00:00December 18th, 2012|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Reform Medicaid Provider Tax, Editorial Urges

In a recent editorial, the Washington Post called for the federal government to reform the provider taxes that most states use to help finance their Medicaid programs.
Provider taxes essentially enable states to increase the effective rate at which the federal government matches their Medicaid spending. Past efforts to limit provider taxes have failed, but the Post calls for reform to be phased in over a number of years.
Pennsylvania currently levies two such taxes: a state-wide hospital assessment and a Philadelphia assessment. Both are important parts of the financing of the state’s Medical Assistance program. Provider taxes are thought to be on the table during the current fiscal cliff negotiations between the Obama administration and congressional leaders.
Read the Washington Post editorial on Medicaid provider taxes here .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-12-04T06:00:58+00:00December 4th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Post-Election Diagnosis for Health Care

While President Obama’s re-election probably spells the end of talk of repealing the Affordable Care Act, many questions remain about how – and how completely – the health care reform law passed in 2010 will be implemented.
In the days following the election, observers are asking these and other questions.
In the article “Federal Deficit Talks Could Impact Obama’s Moves on Health Law,” Kaiser Health News speculates about the future of some of the more controversial and expensive aspects of the Affordable Care Act, including creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board; the extensive insurance subsidies for which many Americans will be eligible; the future of the medical device tax; and the law’s provisions that limit the degree to which insurers can charge higher rates for older people.
The Stateline web site looks at the decisions ahead for state governments in the article “Obama Win Means Big Health Care Decisions for States.” Many governors still have not declared whether their state will expand their Medicaid programs – a move required by the Affordable Care Act but made optional by the Supreme Court in a June 2012 decision.
The first issue that will be addressed, though, is state decisions on whether to create their own health insurance exchanges, a key part of the reform law, or let the federal government create those exchanges for them. States are required to inform the federal government of their intentions by November 16, although it now appears they will be given more time. Pennsylvania is among the states that have not yet declared their intentions.
Meanwhile, looming over the health care industry is the prospect of sequestration, part of last year’s deficit reduction compromise, that leaves Medicaid untouched but will require a cut of two percent in all Medicare payments beginning on January 1 unless Congress acts to prevent these cuts. Read more about this in an article from The Hill titled “Sequester Would Cut $11 Billion from Medicare.”
These and other issues are of particular importance to Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals because of the especially large numbers of low-income and publicly insured patients they serve.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-11-09T10:42:28+00:00November 9th, 2012|Health care reform|Comments Off

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