They called for the governor to add $6.8 billion to her state budget over the next four years to close the Medicaid funding gap. Providers and health care workers alike blamed long waits for emergency room visits, a lack of nursing home beds and long delays to see specialists on the shortfall created by forcing hospitals and nursing homes to fill the 30% gap in funding they must absorb for every Medicaid patient every day.
Under the reforms, Maine hospitals would be taxed at a higher rate. It may sound counter-intuitive, but those higher taxes would allow the state to draw more federal dollars to raise reimbursement rates and give many hospitals an overall boost. But not for York Hospital, says President and CEO Patrick Taylor. Taylor says York Hospital would have to pay an additional $2.4 million each year in taxes.
The ban on surprise medical bills protected patients from more than 10 million claims for out-of-network services in the first nine months of 2023, according to new estimates by health insurers.
Declining reimbursements are among the impacts on a hospital’s bottom line. Even before the pandemic, hospitals in Wisconsin say they have been experiencing difficulties. “Workforce challenges, issues related to reimbursement,” Eric Borgerding, the president and CEO of the Wisconsin Hospital Association, said. Limited reimbursements also restrict hospitals. Borgerding said that’s where the payer mix comes in. A payer mix refers to how the hospital is being reimbursed for the care it’s providing patients, whether through government programs like Medicare, Medicaid or other insurance avenues.
A new survey showed that about half were operating in the red, and the share was even more dramatic for small rural hospitals. Driving that financial picture, says the Nebraska Hospital Association, which released the survey results, are rising workforce and pharmaceutical costs, along with reimbursement coverage gaps from Medicaid and Medicare. At risk if the trend continues unaddressed are cuts ranging from patient medical programs to staff support services such as child care, hospital representatives said during a news conference Monday.