Attributable to Carmela Coyle, President & CEO, July 7, 2010
Maryland's hospitals are very disappointed with the Health Services Cost Review Commission's vote today to reject the joint consensus rate update proposal presented by hospitals and insurers and vote instead for a well-below inflation increase in hospital charges.The Commission's action is particularly disappointing because the proposal was created after months of hard work, earnest negotiation, and collaboration.
We are concerned that the Commission would ignore a long-negotiated compromise on the part of key stakeholders. While the rate update is ultimately the Commission's decision, each year they ask payors and providers to develop just such an agreement. To then reject that agreement throws cold water on the collaboration that Maryland's rate-setting process relies on. Of greater concern, Commissioners have rejected a hospital/payor proposal to reduce the unnecessary use of care by reducing hospital readmissions--a short-sighted decision today. Marylanders were not well served by today's Commission decision.
In fact, the spirit of the joint consensus proposal and the work that led to it will be especially critical to the important task that lies ahead for all of us: health care reform and reshaping Maryland's all-payor rate-setting system. That will be a complex effort and will require all of us to work together, just as we did to craft the joint consensus proposal.
Today's update decision will result in hospitals being paid less than the cost of the care they provide and will push already-strained hospitals to the brink of financial stability. Today's decision lowered our joint below-inflation recommendation by an additional $57 million. And, sadly, with Maryland's communities still emerging from an historic recession, hospitals, as key employers in those communities, will have little choice other than to cut thousands of good paying jobs with benefits that our state's economy can ill-afford to lose at this critical time.