RURAL HOSPITALS BRACE FOR ANOTHER HIT
Friday, December 18th, 2009 -- 3:31 PM
Rural hospitals are facing another tough year as the state looks to get the Medicaid program out of the red.An article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week explained the state may have to cut more than $1-billion from BadgerCare Plus and other health care programs for the disabled, elderly and low-income families.
The reason: More people are enrolled in the programs now, and tax revenues have plummeted because of the economic downturn.
Officials have a number of ideas to make ends meet, but one is especially hard for rural hospitals to swallow.
With many of the state's 59 ?critical access hospitals? struggling, the state wants to reduce their Medicaid reimbursements by 10%.
"In theory, they're supposed to cost-reimburse us," says Scott Polenz of Memorial Medical Center in Neillsville, "but, we haven't seen the cost-reimbursement audit that we're supposed to have every year since 2002."
"The impact on us is a couple hundred thousand dollars; the impact at some other hospitals is over $1-million," he says.
MMC is one of the 59 targeted for a further reduction of reimbursements. The facility will have to break even the only way they can: by heaping more costs on the privately insured.
"My first reaction is this is going to (cost us) maybe $60,000 to $80,000 on an annual basis. We don't have much of a bottom line, if we have one at all. This could take a break-even year and put us in the red," he worries.
Polenz says Memorial Medical Center has had a very good balance sheet, historically, but the past few years have been very difficult.
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