The Garden City Telegram
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Medicaid cuts could tighten budgets
Published 12/29/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
Statewide reductions for Medicaid reimbursements expected to take effect at the beginning of the new year could mean tighter operations at area health care agencies, including St. Catherine Hospital, where officials expect at least half a million dollars in lost reimbursements next year.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram In this Nov., 2008 file photo, Agatha Ousler, R.N., readies an infant for feeding in the Natal Intensive Care Unit at St. Catherine. The hospital is anticipating about half a million dollars in lost Medicaid reimbursements for the first half of next year due to state spending cuts.
Several area service agencies including Area Mental Health and Mosaic, which serves individuals with development disabilities and others that rely on Medicaid funds to support salaries of health care attendants and provide services, already have said they anticipate making reductions in the wake of a 10-percent Medicaid provider cut through the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
The cuts are part of Gov. Mark Parkinson's latest budget-balancing measures to cut nearly $260 million from the state budget, the fifth in a set of spending cuts and other budget adjustments this year to avoid a deficit before the current fiscal year that ends June 30, 2010.
The Kansas Health Policy Authority, the lead agency for the state's Medicaid program, has announced it is taking the first steps in implementing the 10-percent reduction -- about $12.5 million less in spending statewide -- which is expected to affect payments to more than 25,000 health care providers that serve nearly 320,000 low-income families, elderly and disabled people.
The reduction in state spending also will result in lower federal reimbursements for Medicaid services, estimated at just more than $59 million through the end of the fiscal year, according to the KHPA.
At St. Catherine, the Medicaid reductions translate to about $500,000 in lost reimbursements for the first half of next year, said John Yox, the hospital's senior vice president.
Yox said the hospital, which provides between $10 million to $12 million in charity care each year, will continue to see Medicaid patients, though currently Yox estimated the regional health care facility receives about 75 percent in reimbursement for its Medicaid clientele.
"It could turn into a vicious cycle because if we don't see patients as they're referred to us, they'll wind up in the ER, the least efficient and most costly site of care," Yox said.
Yox said he could not say at this time whether hospital officials anticipate making staffing reductions.
Stephanie Waggoner, chief executive officer of the United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries, said she is hoping the cuts are temporary.
While the safety-net health care centers in Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal and Ulysses that serve uninsured and under-insured patients on a sliding-scale based on income do not see a substantial Medicaid clientele, Waggoner said UMMAM doctors have been seeing more children as new patients lately, though she could not say why.
"If other physicians are not accepting as many Medicaid patients and it means more people are coming to us, then that's OK, too," she said.
The statewide Medicaid payment reductions also call for about $50,000 in cuts to local health departments and about $207,000 less for ambulance transportation services. Ashley Goss, director of the Finney County Health Department, said she doesn't know yet how those cuts will translate to or affect the county's health department or Finney County EMS.
Medicaid services in Kansas are provided through two mechanisms, and the schedule for implementing the cuts will be different for each, according to the KHPA.
For services reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis the cuts will take effect Friday. For services provided to beneficiaries who are enrolled in managed care, also known as HealthWave, the cuts are expected to take effect in March or April, pending approval by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the KHPA said.
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