At the end of April, Salina Regional Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas publicly announced that the hospital and insurance company began negotiating rates paid to the hospital for care services.
The state's decision to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates for Astria Toppenish Hospital comes too late to save Astria’s Family Maternity Center, but it’s still welcome news.
Under a bill signed into law May 11 by Gov. Jay Inslee, the state will begin reimbursing inpatient visits by Medicaid patients at 120%, while reimbursing outpatient visits at 200%. Meantime, the state’s giving Astria $4 million in distressed hospital funding to help cover the nonprofit’s costs until the higher rates take effect this July.
Congress is considering several bills that would impose additional site-neutral payment reductions to services provided in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). A description of the legislative proposals, AHA’s take on the proposals and the potential impact these proposals would have on Medicare reimbursement to hospitals and health systems follow. Each analysis and estimated impact should be taken on its own, and they should not be combined because there is overlap in the proposals.
A bill for expanding state Medicaid reimbursement for rural hospitals received bipartisan support despite an increase in cost for Nevada at a Senate Finance Committee meeting last week.
Over 100 hospitals are calling on state lawmakers to boost Medicaid reimbursement to bring it closer to the actual cost of care. Hospital officials on Monday signed-off on a letter to members of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, requesting $185 million annually to cut their financial losses from low Medicaid reimbursement "in half."
A landmark bill increasing a local hospital's main source of funding may help save a community from losing their main source of healthcare.
"In Toppenish we were treated differently than other hospitals," said Cathy Bambrick, administrator at Astria Toppenish Hospital. "We fell through the cracks for years of enhanced rural health funding."