SNAP Archives - Page 9 of 11 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

SNAP Asks PA Delegation to Protect Safety-Net Hospitals in Budget Talks

As the congressional budget conference committee begins its work, SNAP has asked members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to urge their colleagues serving on the committee to protect the state’s safety-net hospitals from any further Medicare and Medicaid cuts.
In the message, SNAP notes the significant Medicare and Medicaid cuts the state’s safety-net hospitals have already suffered and warns that further cuts could jeopardize access to care in communities across the commonwealth.
Read SNAP’s message to the Pennsylvania congressional delegation here, on the SNAP web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-10-30T06:00:36+00:00October 30th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania, Uncategorized|Comments Off

CMS Finalizes Medicaid DSH Cuts

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a final Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) regulation that cuts federal spending on Medicaid DSH $500 million in FY 2014 and $600 million in FY 2015.
The Medicaid DSH cuts were mandated by the Affordable Care Act in anticipation of every state expanding its Medicaid program. The reform law’s Medicaid expansion mandate was later made optional by a Supreme Court ruling.
Medicaid DSH cuts will hurt all Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals, and the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has conveyed its opposition to the cuts to CMS and also has asked members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to support current legislation to delay the implementation of both Medicaid DSH and Medicare DSH cuts for two years.
While the Affordable Care Act calls for Medicaid DSH cuts through 2020, the new regulation covers only two years. CMS has indicated that it will review its reduction methodology for future years.
Read more about the Medicaid DSH cut, why it was made, the objections to it, and future Medicaid DSH cuts in this CQ Healthbeat article presented by the Commonwealth Fund.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-20T06:00:29+00:00September 20th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

The Implications of Rejecting Medicaid Expansion

Twenty-one states have decided not to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act and another six states remain undecided.
How will these decisions affect these states and their residents? How many people who might have become eligible for Medicaid will remain uninsured? How much federal Medicaid revenue will these states forgo? How will these decisions affect hospitals’ uncompensated care costs? How might payments to hospitals be affected?
Pennsylvania is one of the six states where Medicaid expansion is still being considered, and the report includes specific projections for the commonwealth. The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the state.
A new study from the Urban Institute attempts to quantify the answers to these and other questions. Find “The Cost of Not Expanding Medicaid” here , on the web site of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-07-25T06:00:48+00:00July 25th, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

SNAP Comments on Observation Rate Proposal

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has submitted a formal comment letter to the state’s Department of Public Welfare in response to the department’s expressed interest in establishing an observation rate in the state’s Medical Assistance fee-for-service program.
DPW expressed this interest in a June 29 Pennsylvania Bulletin notice.
SNAP supports the creation of an observation rate, and in its letter it outlines how it believes DPW should go about developing a rate that is fair to hospitals.
Safety-net hospitals have a special interest in this issue because observation rate candidates enter hospitals through their emergency rooms and safety-net hospitals typically have among the busiest emergency rooms in the communities they serve.
Read SNAP’s observation rate comment letter here .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-07-23T16:12:30+00:00July 23rd, 2013|Pennsylvania Bulletin, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

PA Senate to Move on Medicaid Expansion

Pennsylvania state Senate leaders plan to bring a vote to expand the state’s Medicaid program to the Senate floor this week.
The bill, according to Senate leaders, will include conditions that will make it more palatable to more conservative Republicans and the governor. Democrats are already thought to support Medicaid expansion.
While the bill is considered likely to enjoy solid support in the Senate, it is not clear whether the state House is as interested in Medicaid expansion as envisioned under the federal Affordable Care Act.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the state.
Read more about the Senate bill, who is behind it, and what the bill says in this Centre Daily Times article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-06-24T06:00:32+00:00June 24th, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Will Medicaid Coverage Mean Access?

With many states preparing to expand their Medicaid programs and enroll unprecedented numbers of new people, it is not clear whether Medicaid coverage will lead to access to care.
That concern arises in the wake of a survey that found that only 43 percent of physicians accept Medicaid patients. Other providers, moreover, may not be up to filling the gap: the same survey found that only 20 percent of physician assistants and nurse practitioners serve Medicaid patients.
Thus, while more people than ever will have health insurance once the Medicaid expansion component of the Affordable Care Act takes effect, it is not clear whether those who find themselves newly insured will have reasonable access to medical services.
While the Affordable Care Act attempts to anticipate this challenge by raising the traditionally low fees that Medicare pays primary care physicians to the same level as those paid by Medicare for the next two years, it is not clear whether this new policy is working and if will have a lasting impact after the two-year experiment ends.
This could become a major challenge for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals if the state eventually chooses to expand its Medicaid program. To date, the state has chosen not to expand the program but has been discussing the possibility of doing so with federal officials. The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the state.
Read more about the survey and its implications in this Healthcare Finance News report .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-05-08T06:00:00+00:00May 8th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Medicaid Expansion Would Boost PA Economy and Pay for Itself, Report Says

A new study suggests that expanding Medicaid eligibility in Pennsylvania would create as many as 39,000 new jobs over the next seven years and generate enough new revenue to pay the state’s share of the expansion’s costs.
Or so says a new study by RAND Health.
According to the study, Medicaid expansion under the terms established by the Affordable Care Act would reduce Pennsylvania’s uninsured rate from the current 12.7 percent to 4.8 percent in 2016, spur $20 billion in economic growth by 2020, and generate more new tax revenue than the state would need to spend to pay its share of expansion’s cost once the federal share of expansion drops from 100 percent to 90 percent.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the state.
Read more about the RAND Health report, and find a link to the study, in this Central Penn Business Journal article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-04-01T06:00:54+00:00April 1st, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Feds Offer New Carrot to Promote Medicaid Expansion

In their desire to persuade states to expand their Medicaid programs as called for in the Affordable Care Act, federal officials are now suggesting that states could use new federal Medicaid funds to enable Medicaid-eligible people to purchase private insurance.
Even though this was not envisioned in the health reform law, the prospect of making greater use of the private sector appears to be appealing to many Republican governors who have otherwise been reluctant to commit their states to expanding their Medicaid programs.
Pennsylvania has no current plans to expand Medicaid eligibility, although there appears to be growing interest in doing so throughout the state. Expansion would add approximately 500,000 people to the state’s Medicaid rolls, many of whom would be served by safety-net hospitals. The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the commonwealth.
Read more about how this idea came about, why many states find it appealing, how it would work, and what the potential challenges are in this New York Times article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-03-27T06:00:31+00:00March 27th, 2013|Health care reform, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Sequestration Could Hit Southeastern PA Hospitals Hard

Hospitals in southeastern Pennsylvania could lose $50 million in patient revenue a year if the scheduled sequestration of federal spending takes effect on March 1.
At that time, all Medicare payments to hospitals would be cut two percent.
In addition, hospitals in that region could lose another $41 million from a comparable cut in National Institutes of Health (NIH) spending.
Safety-net hospitals located in southeastern Pennsylvania would suffer a significant proportion of both of these cuts. Members of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) located in this region include the Albert Einstein Medical Center, Hahnemann University Hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
To learn more about how sequestration could affect one group of Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals, see this Philadelphia Inquirer article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-02-27T06:00:15+00:00February 27th, 2013|Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

The Proposed FY 2014 State Budget: Part 5 of 7

Other Medical Assistance Issues

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett recently unveiled his proposed state FY 2014 budget. When he did, members of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) immediately 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 a seven-day period, SNAP presents in this space 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. Today, SNAP takes a look at what the proposed budget says about Medical Assistance issues not addressed in parts one through four of this series.
The proposed budget calls for a number of other changes in Medical Assistance spending, including:

New spending of $55.9 million in total funds for what has been labeled a “public-private collaboration project” under the outpatient budget that is offset by a $28.5 million savings within the same budget line.
Savings in the inpatient, outpatient, and capitation (managed care/HealthChoices) budget lines associated with “audit enhancements.”
Savings associated with the state outsourcing its third-party liability functions, including payment recovery.
A doubling of state spending on information technology to bring Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance eligibility systems and technology up to the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
An increase of $27 million for mental health services and $3.2 million for state mental health services block grant funding
A savings of more than $8 million associated with instituting premiums for so-called loophole children who participate in the state’s PH-95 program for selected Pennsylvanians with autism.

Tomorrow: The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

PA Safety Net Admin2013-02-18T06:00:10+00:00February 18th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues, Proposed FY 2014 Pennsylvania state budget, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

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