California’s 430 hospitals and health systems are shouldering the
financial burden of the government’s responsibility to provide
care for some of our most vulnerable patients – seniors, the
disabled, children and the under-insured.
Medicaid is in desperate financial trouble. The states know it.
Hospitals know it. Doctors know it. And as each group cuts back
on services to try to save money, increasingly patients know it,
too.
November 30, 2011Sacramento Bee, November 30, 2011
Hospital officials in California’s rural counties say the latest
round of cuts to Medi-Cal could leave thousands of the state’s
neediest people without access to medical care.
The California Hospital Association has petitioned a federal
court to prevent certain Medi-Cal reimbursement cuts from taking
effect, KPBS News reports. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid
program.
Kern Valley Hospital and other hospitals like it could become
another casualty in the country’s worst economic downturn since
the Great Depression.
The Budget Act of 2011, signed by Governor Brown on March 24,
includes a reduction to Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for SNFs
that are distinct parts of hospitals. Medi-Cal rates for these
facilities will be reduced another 10 percent – rates that were
applicable in the 2008-09 rate year.
November 1, 2011Record Searchlight, November 1, 2011
Health care officials say a recent 10 percent cut in Medi-Cal
reimbursements for doctors treating low-income patients portends
a bleak future for about 70,000 north state residents already
struggling to find someone to treat them.
September 16, 2011California Healthline, September 16, 2011
Medi-Cal cuts could create risks for millions of Californians who
depend on the program for treatment of chronic or terminal health
conditions, according to a new report, Kaiser Health News’
“Capsules” reports.
September 11, 2011C. Duane Dauner, President/CEO, California Hospital Association
California ranks 51st nationally in Medicaid payments to health
care providers per enrollee.
The spotlight is shining on health care costs. It’s an issue that
generates newspaper headlines and debate among business leaders,
policymakers and consumers. But for all of the arguments — and
accusations — that emanate from this discussion, the facts are
more complex than the dialogue often reflects.
There has been a lot of talk and media attention about the
federal deficit and the raising or freezing of our national debt
ceiling. If Congress does not agree on a plan going forward by
Dec. 23, the Defense Department and health care delivery –
doctors and hospitals – will pay a significant price.
Mayers Memorial Hospital District CEO Matt Rees (Fall River
Mills, Calif.) made a case to health care regulators in
Washington, D.C., to stop impending budget cuts that would force
him to close the hospital’s birthing center and move 30 infirm
and elderly patients far away from loved ones. Rees, along with a
delegation from the California Hospital Association, protested
pending state cuts to Medi-Cal that would reduce his hospital’s
budget by $1.4 million.
Medicare is a health insurance program managed by the U.S.
government for people 65 or older and for younger people with
certain disabilities. Medicaid – Medi-Cal in California -
is a joint federal-state health program for certain categories of
people with lower incomes such as children, pregnant women and
those with disabilities.
Faced with huge financial problems, many states have frozen or
reduced Medicaid (Medi-Cal) payments to health care providers,
and governors of both parties have proposed additional cuts this
year. Medicaid recipients and health care providers have sued
state officials to block such cuts, and one case, from
California, is pending in the United States Supreme Court.
Medi-Cal is California’s version of the nationally implemented
Medicaid program and it provides more than 7.7 million low-income
families, children, and elderly, and disabled Californians will
health care and other vital human resources. Costs for the
program are split by the federal and state governments, with a
total price tag of about $53 billion this year.
Medi-Cal is California’s version of Medicaid, a $50 billion
government health care program for the state’s 7 million
low-income, elderly and handicapped residents.
Recipients would cover $5 of the cost for their doctor, clinic
and dental visits under Brown’s plan. Pharmacy services would
cost between $3 and $5, depending on availability of low-cost,
preferred drugs. If approved by the Legislature, the copayments
would save the state an estimated $294 million in 2011-12,
according to projections.
The Obama administration decision will help modernize and expand
the health insurance program for the poor, possibly covering
hundreds of thousands more residents over the next five years.
California counties could soon have more money to put towards
caring for the uninsured — about $10 billion more, as federal
matching funds for the state’s Medi-Cal program. But finding
enough providers to deliver care could be the challenge.
September 2, 2010Sacramento Business Journal supplement
California’s 430 community hospitals and health systems provide
care to every patient who needs it whether or not they have
insurance. While hospitals focus on caring for their patients,
they face significant financial challenges caused by the
inadequate payments from two government-sponsored programs:
Medicare and Medi-Cal. Medicare and Medi-Cal combined provide
coverage to 11 million people in California, including seniors,
the disabled, children and the underinsured.
California faces two intertwining problems about to get more
acute: not enough family practice physicians and not enough
physicians treating Medi-Cal patients. How should California deal
with these two shortages?
Hospitals and physicians are bracing for possible Medi-Cal
reductions as the state budget is once again on life support and
could remain that way for months.
Citing a federal government estimate that more than 3 million
Californians cannot find doctors who will provide them essential
medical care, health care and social justice advocates challenge
the Senate to show the same level of compassion and leadership
demonstrated by yesterday’s passage of SB 726 (Ashburn) on the
Assembly Floor.
“Speaker John Perez and members of the State Assembly listened to
the desperate concerns of Californians who lack basic access to
healthcare. By voting in support of SB 726, which will allow
facilities in rural and federally designated health professional
shortage areas to hire a limited number of doctors, the Assembly
has acted to ease the escalating doctor shortages that are
plaguing lower income and rural communities,” said Tom Petersen,
director of government relations for the Association of
California Healthcare Districts.
April 30, 2010Kaiser Commission on Medicaid & the Uninsured
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) expands
Medicaid to nearly all individuals under age 65 with incomes up
to 133 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL) which will
extend coverage to large numbers of the nation’s uninsured
population, especially adults. However, the ultimate reach of the
program will depend heavily on both federal and state actions to
implement the new law.
Higher Medicare copays, sometimes just a few dollars more, led to
fewer doctors visits and to more and longer hospital stays, a
large new study reveals.
My mother had been in pain for sometime in her abdomen and in
her back. Eventually, the pain became so bad that I took her to
St Mary’s emergency room…
