Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania Archives - Page 7 of 12

SNAP Comments on Balance Billing Proposal

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has submitted comments to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department addressing that department’s proposed Balance Billing Protection Act.
While supporting the concept of addressing the problem of surprise balance billing for insurance-covered medical services, SNAP encouraged the Insurance Department to consider the potential market-influenced conditions that may be leading to balance billing; to foster greater transparency and better communication between consumers, insurers, and providers; to avoid any methodology for resolving reimbursement disputes that favors insurers over providers; and to require hospitals to participate in reimbursement dispute resolution only when hospitals are part of that dispute and not when they are only the site at which the disputed services were delivered.
SNAP also encouraged the Insurance Department to involve the state’s Department of Health in addressing this issue; to seek greater public input; and to look to balance billing efforts elsewhere for guidance.
Find the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s proposed Balance Billing Protection Act here and read SNAP’s comments on that proposal here.

PA Safety Net Admin2016-03-01T11:06:30+00:00March 1st, 2016|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Hospitals, Especially Safety-Net Hospitals, Struggle With Heart Failure Readmissions

For all the emphasis on reducing readmissions to hospitals, providers continue to struggle to prevent readmissions of patients suffering heart failure.
Or so concludes a new study published in the Journal of Cardiac Failure.
According to the study, there has been only a slight reduction in readmissions rates for heart failure patients over the past four years.
In addition, Fierce Healthcare reports that

…2014 research revealed that safety-net hospitals and those with largely low-income patient populations are at particular risk for heart failure readmissions; patients from lower-income neighborhoods, researchers found, were nearly 17 percent more likely to be readmitted within six months of discharge.

This finding supports the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania’s long-time contention that the distinct challenges Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals face in serving their especially low-income, medically challenged communities speak to the need for public policy that reflects those special challenges.
To learn more about this issue, see this Fierce Healthcare report.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-10-02T06:00:12+00:00October 2nd, 2015|Medicare, Uncategorized|Comments Off

State Shares Preliminary Thoughts on HealthChoices Procurement

In anticipation of releasing a request for proposals later this year seeking health insurers interested in participating in Pennsylvania’s HealthChoices program for Medicaid beneficiaries, the state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) issued a request for information (RFI) in late May seeking input from stakeholders and interested parties on what the state might do through its next generation of HealthChoices contracts to improve the program and its delivery of care.
Now that the deadline for submitting comments has passed, DHS has released a new document that shares the comments offered most frequently by those who responded to the RFI along with brief descriptions of some of the changes the department is considering when it solicits bids for HealthChoices managed care plans later this year.
Find the original May RFI here, SNAP’s response to that RFI here, and the recent DHS follow-up document here.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-07-02T06:00:19+00:00July 2nd, 2015|HealthChoices PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

SNAP Calls for HealthChoices Improvements

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has urged Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services to pursue transformative innovation in the state’s HealthChoices Medicaid managed care program.
In particular, SNAP has called on DHS to create regional health collaboratives consisting of both insurers and providers to work together to deliver better, more coordinated care to Pennsylvania’s Medicaid population.
SNAP also recommended that the state finance innovation by implementing a Delivery System Reform Incentive Payments program, better known as DSRIP, to fund innovation in the state’s Medicaid program.
SNAP’s suggestions came in response to a request for information issued by the state seeking recommendations for how to improve the HealthChoices program in anticipation of the state’s plan to rebid HealthChoices managed care contracts later this year.
See the state’s request for information here and find SNAP’s comment letter here.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-06-29T06:00:03+00:00June 29th, 2015|HealthChoices PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

SNAP Holds Legislative Breakfast

On Tuesday, June 2, the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania held a legislative breakfast in Harrisburg to talk to members of the state legislature and their staffs about issues of importance to Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals and to present SNAP’s position on various aspects of Governor Wolf’s proposed FY 2016 budget.
In particular, SNAP addressed a number of proposed cuts in state Medicaid spending that would have an especially serious effect on Pennsylvania’s 41 private safety-net hospitals.
Among those who attended were numerous members of the state House and Senate from across the commonwealth: Democrats and Republicans, members of leadership and key budget and health care committees, and individuals with a keen interest in the work being done by Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.
During the meeting SNAP also unveiled a brief document outlining its position on the proposed FY 2016 budget and the Medicaid cuts it includes. Find that document here.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-06-04T06:00:32+00:00June 4th, 2015|Proposed FY 2016 Pennsylvania state budget|Comments Off

Numbers Link Medicaid Expansion, Diabetes Diagnoses

One of the primary arguments made by the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania in favor of state Medicaid reimbursement policies that support the work of safety-net hospitals is that many of the low-income patients they serve have had sporadic contact with the health care system over the years and often present with medical problems that go well beyond the immediate reason that brings them to hospitals.
Now comes new information that supports that argument.
The medical testing company Quest Diagnostics has found that the number of Medicaid patients its testing has found to have diabetes has risen more than 24 percent during two recent six-month review periods in states that have expanded their Medicaid programs while the number of such patients found to have diabetes in states that did not expand their Medicaid programs saw only a 0.4 percent increase in diabetes diagnoses.
Pennsylvania did not expand access to Medicaid during the review periods covered by the Quest analysis but now that it has done so, the problem seems likely to arise in the state.
Because of where they are located, Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals serve higher proportions of low-income patients than the typical community hospital and are therefore more likely to be caring for these more challenging patients newly diagnosed with diabetes in the near future.
For more information about the Quest findings and their implications, see this New York Times article. In addition, the latest edition of the journal Diabetes Care presents a study on the subject. See that article here.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-03-26T06:00:08+00:00March 26th, 2015|Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals|Comments Off

PA Governor Proposes New Budget With Medicaid Implications

Yesterday Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf presented his proposed FY 2016 budget to the state’s General Assembly.
Included in that budget are proposed spending levels for Medicaid, including supplemental payments and other programs that affect the state’s private safety-net hospitals.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has prepared a detailed memo outlining the budget’s broader themes and then details its potential implications for safety-net hospitals. Hospital officials interested in requesting a copy of the memo can do so by hitting the “contact us” link on the upper right-hand corner of this screen.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-03-04T16:56:41+00:00March 4th, 2015|Proposed FY 2016 Pennsylvania state budget|Comments Off

SNAP Looks to the Future

With the inauguration of a new governor and the start of a new legislative session, the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has prepared a series of four papers for leaders of the new Wolf administration and legislative and committee leaders and staff.
The fourth of those papers, released this week, addresses the importance of innovation in addressing the challenges safety-net hospitals face in leading the way to serving Pennsylvania’s growing Medicaid population.
The paper describes the new demands being made of hospitals by insurers, government, and others; tools through which to pursue innovation; the goals of future innovation; and the role that SNAP and safety-net hospitals must play in that innovation.
The first paper, “What is SNAP?”, was an introduction to the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania: what safety-net hospitals are, where they are located, whom they serve, and how they differ from other acute-care hospitals in the state.
The second paper, “The Challenges Pennsylvania Safety-Net Hospitals Face,” describes the special role safety-net hospitals play in serving low-income and medically vulnerable Pennsylvanians and the emerging challenges they face in fulfilling this vital role.
The third paper, “Transitioning Medicaid: Principles for Changing Course on Medicaid Expansion,” presents eight principles SNAP believes state officials should follow if they choose to abandon the Healthy Pennsylvania model of Medicaid expansion in favor of a more traditional approach to expanding the state’s Medicaid expansion.
Find all four SNAP papers here.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-02-12T10:43:14+00:00February 12th, 2015|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

SNAP Principles for Changing Course on Medicaid Expansion in Pennsylvania

With the inauguration of a new governor and the start of a new legislative session, the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has prepared a series of four papers for leaders of the new Wolf administration and legislative and committee leaders and staff.
The third of those four papers presents eight principles SNAP believes state officials should follow if they choose to abandon the Healthy Pennsylvania model of Medicaid expansion in favor of a more traditional approach to expanding the state’s Medicaid expansion.
Those eight principles are:

communicate changes effectively to the provider community
ensure beneficiaries’ continuity of coverage and continuity of care
ensure the adequacy of provider networks
simplify beneficiary and provider enrollment
preserve vital supplemental payments to safety-net hospitals
continue pursuing Medical Assistance payment reforms
ensure the long-term financing of Medical Assistance in response to current and future threats to that financing
invest in innovative, population-based infrastructure and programmatic improvements

The first paper, “What is SNAP?”, was an introduction to the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania: what safety-net hospitals are, where they are located, whom they serve, and how they differ from other acute-care hospitals in the state.
The second paper, “The Challenges Pennsylvania Safety-Net Hospitals Face,” describes the special role safety-net hospitals play in serving low-income and medically vulnerable Pennsylvanians and the emerging challenges they face in fulfilling this vital role.
Find all three SNAP papers here.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-01-28T06:00:12+00:00January 28th, 2015|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals|Comments Off

The Challenges Facing Pennsylvania’s Safety-Net Hospitals

With the arrival of a new governor and the start of a new legislative session, the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has prepared a series of four papers for leaders of the new Wolf administration and legislative and committee leaders and staff.
The second of those four papers describes the major health care and health policy challenges safety-net hospitals face. Those challenges include:

the distinct patients safety-net hospitals serve
inadequate payments for Medicaid services
the large numbers of uninsured and underinsured patients safety-net hospitals serve
threats to vital state Medicaid supplemental payments, such as Medicaid disproportionate share payments (Medicaid DSH
continuing change and reform in the health care system, including the delivery of care and how safety-net hospitals are paid for their services

The first paper, “What is SNAP?”, was an introduction to the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania: what safety-net hospitals are, where they are located, whom they serve, and how they differ from other acute-care hospitals in the state.
Find both SNAP papers here.

PA Safety Net Admin2015-01-23T06:00:07+00:00January 23rd, 2015|Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

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