Yesterday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett unveiled his proposed FY 2014 budget in a speech to the state’s General Assembly.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has prepared a detailed summary of the budget proposal with an emphasis on provisions of particular importance to the state’s safety-net hospitals. To receive a copy of this memo, please contact SNAP at info@pasafetynet.org.
Will he or won’t he?
That question is still on the minds of many as Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett continues neither to declare that the state will expand its Medicaid program as provided for in the Affordable Care Act nor to confirm the suspicion of most observers that he will choose not to expand the program beyond its current 2.2 million recipients.
As of right now, 12 states appear to be undecided about Medicaid expansion. The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion.
For a closer look at the situation in Pennsylvania, including an account of which interest groups are for expansion and which are not as enthusiastic as one might expect, read this column
from the Central Penn Business Journal.
While many of the nation’s governors have ideological problems with many aspects of the Affordable Care Act, it appears that more of them are preparing to accept one major facet of the bill with which they particularly disagree: Medicaid expansion.
When the law passed, the mandatory expansion of Medicaid eligibility was one of its most controversial aspects and encountered a great deal of resistance from many governors. When the Supreme Court ruled last year that the mandate was unconstitutional, many governors indicated that they would decline the now-optional Medicaid expansion.
But as the time for implementing the Medicaid expansion draws closer, more governors are concluding that the lure of millions, and even billions, of “free” federal Medicaid matching dollars is too hard to resist.
In addition, some governors are concerned about appearances if they turn down the federal Medicaid money while a clause in the reform act would enable legal immigrants in their state to receive health insurance premium subsidies while other low-income residents remain ineligible for those subsidies and uninsured.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has not yet announced his decision on whether the state will expand its Medicaid program but appears to be leaning against such an expansion. The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the commonwealth.
Read about the challenges governors face in refusing the federal Medicaid money in this RealClearPolitics article and about the immigration twist on the issue in this Washington Post report
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The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare has published a notice that it will increase the fees Medical Assistance pays for selected primary care services.
The pay raise, funded 100 percent by the federal government, is part of the Affordable Care Act.
For further information about the pay raise, which physicians qualify for it, and how they can receive the pay raise, see the notice here, in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
In addition, members of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) have received a detailed memo outlining the terms of the Medicaid primary care pay raise. Members who have not seen the memo and others who would like a copy can request it at info@paysafetynet.org
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In a message to members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation, the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has asked elected officials in Washington, D.C. to protect the state’s ability to levy assessments on providers to help fund the commonwealth’s Medicaid program. The proceeds from the state’s current provider assessments, SNAP notes, have made a major difference in ensuring the ability of Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals to continue serving their many Medicaid patients.
Read SNAP’s message to the Pennsylvania congressional delegation here
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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.
States must opt into the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion or opt out, the federal government has informed the nation’s governors. They may not implement a partial expansion.
That was the message conveyed to governors by Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Services (HHS).
The Medicaid expansion, made mandatory in the 2010 health care reform law, has been the subject of much debate since the Supreme Court ruled the mandate unconstitutional in June and instead left the decision on whether to expand to the individual states. Some governors have already declared that their states will expand their Medicaid programs, some have announced that they will not, and many still have not decided.
Pennsylvania is among the states that have not yet announced whether they will expand their Medicaid programs, although Governor Tom Corbett has signaled that he is reluctant to incur the additional costs that expansion would involve. The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion.
Read more about this latest decision from HHS in this Washington Post article and read an FAQ that HHS sent to governors regarding both Medicaid expansion and the operation of health insurance exchanges here.
Ten of the 21 busiest maternity units in southeastern Pennsylvania in 2011 were in safety-net hospitals.
And three of those top five are members of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP): Pennsylvania Hospital (#2), the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (#3), and the Albert Einstein Medical Center (#5).
Other SNAP members in the top 21 are Hahnemann University Hospital (#11) and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (#12).
SNAP views offering maternity services as one of the core functions of safety-net hospitals. Most safety-net hospitals offer this service.
To learn more about which hospitals are delivering babies in what numbers in southeastern Pennsylvania, read this Philadelphia Business Journal article.
Medicaid improves access to care and saves lives and deserves to be expanded in the manner envisioned in the Affordable Care Act, according to a new blog entry on the web site of the health care-focused Commonwealth Fund.
According to the blog commentary, Medicaid “fulfills the two main purposes of health insurance – ensuring access to needed care and providing adequate financial protection from burdensome medical expenses.” It also cites research that “confirms that expanding Medicaid not only improves access to care and financial protection of vulnerable individuals and families, but actually saves lives.”
In addition, the blog suggests that Medicaid recipients have only slightly greater cost-related access-to-care problems than individuals with private insurance.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) and the state’s private safety-net hospitals have eagerly anticipated the expansion of Medicaid eligibility mandated by the Affordable Care Act. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision ruling the expansion mandate unconstitutional, these safety-net hospitals now await for Governor Corbett’s decision on whether Pennsylvania will move ahead with that Medicaid expansion.
The title of this commentary is “Medicaid Works: Public Program Continues to Provide Access to Care and Financial Protection for Society’s Most Vulnerable,” and it can be found here, on the Commonwealth Fund’s web site.
A decision by Pennsylvania state officials not to expand the state’s Medicaid program as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act would be harmful to the state’s private hospitals – and especially to its safety-net hospitals, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.
The law previously required all states to expand their Medicaid programs, but that mandate was struck down last month by the Supreme Court.
The court’s decision has serious implications, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) president Michael Chirieleison explained in the article.
“When you remove a critical part of the act like this, it leads to a lot of questions and concerns about the viability and credibility of the remaining initiatives.”
State officials have not yet indicated whether Pennsylvania will expand its Medicaid program.
Read the Post-Gazette article here
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