CMS Cuts Coming To A Hospital Near You
Posted by WhiteCoat on March 11, 2008
On May 25, 2008, the Bush administration and CMS are going to significantly cut reimbursement to hospitals that provide care for the nation’s poor unless Congress or the courts extend the moratorium set to expire that day.
The American Hospital Association, the National Association of Children’s Hospitals, and other agencies filed a lawsuit to prevent CMS from enacting these cuts.
See more about the case at the AHA’s web site, including a copy of the complaint and a copy of the motion for preliminary injunction which were filed today:
Alameda County Medical Center v. Leavitt
Get those blowguns ready.
March 11, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Will the hospitals still be able to stay afloat if they treat the poor without getting compensated? And if they can’t…then what about the poor? And if they cut funding then the hospital has to make cuts and then more people are out of jobs and if more people are out of jobs how does that benefit the economy? And if more people are out of jobs, then the remaining staff has to pick up the slack or pt care is compromised for various budgetary reasons and it probably is already. Then again…maybe…I just need to put on my rose colored glasses. Better yet…maybe all you med professionals just need to simultaneously put your ruby slippers on, close your eyes, click your heels 3 times while wishing real hard and the Wizard of Oz will grant us all our medical Utopia where hospitals operate in the black, all people are insured and able to have prompt treatment, all providers are paid fairly so they don’t have to rely on blowguns to feed their families.
That’s just the point. Death by a thousand cuts. At some point the hospitals are going to have to decide between financial viability and providing uncompensated (or very poorly compensated) care.
Amazing how every working person is required to pay into the system through automatic payroll deduction, but we all get less and less back from the system. Where is all the money going?
March 11, 2008 at 11:17 pm
How in the hell did you scoop this story before me? ????
I’m a law student at Boalt, and this lawsuit is directly up my alley. So what the . . . ? Why didn’t I see it today?
. . . does WhiteCoat by any chance practice in or around Alameda County? Shoot me an email if so. I’d love to ask you some questions.
Either way, you’re right on the money, so to speak — this litigation could (potentially) draw a lot of attention to an important issue. On the other hand, it could provide a lot of self-absorbed legislators with an opportunity to step in, pass another moratorium, and then brag to their constituents back home about how they “saved health care for the poor and the elderly.”
We’ll see.
Try Google Alerts.
California is too laid back for my obsessive compulsiveness.
Docs and hospitals should use this lawsuits and the potential effects of the funding cuts to show how dangerous the system will continue to become until something is done about reimbursement.
March 12, 2008 at 5:23 am
Sea Spray..you are starting to sound like an Obama campaign worker!!!!
First off: I personally feel that ANY gubbimint program could be cut by 10% and you wouldn’t see any decrease in service.
Perhaps for some programs. Medicine is a different bird. Even remaining static with the funding will have bad long-term effects. I’ve seen several EDs close in my state and it isn’t due to overabundance of funding. I guess we’ll have to wait to see if these cuts are enacted to see who’s right about this one.
Secondly: If the gubbimint is going to cut Medicaid program payments..then are the suit and ties, in the hospital, going to take a cut in their salaries?
You’re kidding, right?
Thirdly: Why do we have to CUT program payments? Couldn’t we hire some extra compliance officers to investigate the Medicaid users/abusers? Cutting back on some of the fraud that is committed by Medicaid card holders MAY save the organization some BIG bucks.
Excellent idea, except that I wonder how it would be implemented on a wide scale. Catching the drug seekers/abusers is one thing. How do you catch the people that make illegal/unreported income and still get their medical care for free?
Steve
March 12, 2008 at 9:10 am
lol, that makes two of us, WhiteCoat.
Luckily, there is a boxing club here . . .
Thanks for the google alerts suggestion.
March 12, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Steve…moi? Sound like Obama? Hey…if I could be the powerful orator that he is …I’d be thrilled and in a different line of work. That being said…ya made this conservative (tho not partisan) girl smile.
Yeah…I do call my self a bleeding heart republican and do believe we need both wings to fly the eagle.
WhiteCoat…EXACTLY! Where IS all the money going???