Local providers concerned about health care plan
That's because the
"It's too early for us to know our hospital-specific impact yet," said health system President/CEO
But it doesn't sound like good news.
"If you take the House's version, 23 million Americans will lose health insurance (by 2026, according to the
With a small group of
"That makes people very nervous," said
In the
"We're in the black, but we're not very far in the black," he said. "It won't take much for us to slide back below the break-even mark."
The Affordable Care Act replacement has the potential to hurt hospitals two ways. If the ranks of the uninsured grow, hospitals will end up treating them, but when they're sicker and without reimbursement.
And the
But Medicaid already pays providers below cost.
"They're already paying us less than cost," Perra said. "There's not too many businesses that can run on less than cost."
Given the razor-thin margins -- or, in some cases, red ink -- on which most
"If the hospital goes under, you could have a real crisis in some of these rural communities," he said.
Another option would be for the state to cut Medicaid benefits, the most generous in the nation, to get them more in line with benefits offered by private insurers, Fitzgerald said. But he doesn't think benefit cuts would pass political muster.
The other difficulty health care providers are facing is the very uncertainty of the situation and the impossibility of putting a long-range strategy in place.
"The state is going through a Medicaid transition for the last two and a half years, expanding it, but also changing the way Medicaid pays," Fitzgerald said.
Providers have been working to figure out how to operate with those changes as well as the changes brought by the implementation of the Affordable Care Act a few years ago, he said.
"Whatever the
Perra said he feels like a sports fan watching a football get tossed back and forth. He's trying not to get too upset given how much has to happen before a bill hits the president's desk.
"Experience has told me not to overreact and get too nervous early on in a process like this," he said.
Follow @OD_Roth on Twitter or call her at 315-792-5166.
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