 |
FHA Readies 2010 Legislative Strategy
Hospitals Want Medicaid Changes and Federal Funding
Heading into the 2010 Florida legislative session in March, the priorities of the state’s hospitals are not unlike the top priorities of most Americans these days: They need money.
When it comes to the Florida Hospital Association – the group that lobbies collectively for Florida hospitals – the battle comes down to Medicaid funding, a perpetual juggernaut that demands budget cuts and emergency wrangling almost yearly.
As usual, demands pull at both ends. Hospitals want to increase reimbursement for treating Medicaid patients while the state currently faces a $1.8 billion shortfall in the program.
And if they don’t get more funding, Bruce Rueben, president of the Florida Hospital Association, says more facilities could face similar woes like those at Jackson Memorial Hospital and its affiliate, Jackson Health System, which reported in February to be losing $14 million a month. By June, the public health system could be flat broke.
“We have 4 million people who don’t have health insurance coverage,” Rueben said. “These people must be cared for. It gets to a point where that can become overwhelming.”
Gov. Charlie Crist proposed a $2.6 billion Medicaid spending increase next year to cover an estimated 300,000 new enrollees, but lawmakers largely derided Crist’s budget as unrealistic because it relied on at least $1 billion in federal funding that hadn’t been secured.
Rueben said the state can’t help but lay much of its hope in the hands of Congress. A jobs bill, passed by the House in December, included about $1 billion in additional Medicaid funding for Florida, but it was taken out of the Senate version in February, according to Rueben.
“We have a policy agenda that’s really intertwined with the national policy agenda,” Rueben said. “Whether it’s at the state or at the national level, our top priority it is to see people have predictable access to care. The way to get there is to make sure Medicaid programs are funded. This appears to be an annual challenge.”
The fact that healthcare reform has stalled at the national level makes the upcoming state legislative session that much more challenging, Rueben said.
“We were hopeful that at the national level healthcare reform would result in a substantial increase of Floridians with health insurance coverage.”
Rueben said the hospital association was open to looking at expanding the role of Medicaid managed care plans, but not in ways that disrupt the market. One plan likely to emerge from the Florida Association of Health Plans would impose state leverage into stalled contract negotiations between hospitals and an HMO managed care plan. If hospitals don’t agree to a contract in three tries, the state would cut Medicaid rates by 10 percent, according to the plan.
“Having the state weigh in that way and disrupt the market equilibrium is obviously something that’s very concerning for hospitals,” said Rueben, adding that the association was working on its own proposal for provider-based networks as an alternative. “We want to make sure the right thing is done the right way.”
While more priorities are bound to emerge, the Florida Hospital Association plans to support the following legislative concepts in the 2010 session:
More detailed information can be found at www.fha.org.
Tags:NoneBookmark:
Related:
|
Digg
Facebook
Technorati
Newsvine
Google| Google Ad Blocks |
 |
| Add our RSS Feed |
  |
| Copyright © and Trademark ™ 2008 All Rights Reserved Copyright Statement | Privacy Statement | Terms of Service |
