As state budgets await signatures in the coming weeks, healthcare providers in at least two states are hunkering down to deal more severe cuts to Medicaid and other programs aimed at low-income patients.
In Florida, a proposed 7 percent Medicaid cut could mean a $287.3 million loss for the state's 190 hospitals in Medicaid money for fiscal year 2010-11, reports the Orlando Business Journal. As in other states, the cut comes as Medicaid rolls are on the rise, reflecting the ailing economy. According to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, there are 300,000 more Medicaid recipients in Florida this year than last.
For the 1,788-bed, eight-hospital Orlando Health system, for example, the July cut means the loss of about $14.9 million annually, the newspaper notes. Florida Hospital, which has 2,209 beds at seven local hospitals in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, is expecting to lose $12 million.
If the cut goes through, some of the hospitals in special taxing districts, which collect taxes to help pay for indigent care, may be able to "buy back" part of the Medicaid rate reductions by putting up local money to provide the required state match to get federal funding under the stimulus program.
Meanwhile, South Carolina stands to lose $50 million in funding to provide healthcare to the poor, reports The State.
Among the House cuts intended to offset the state's $21 million shortfall in court and public safety funds, the Senate must this week decide whether to eliminate breast cancer screenings for 16,000 poor South Carolina women, limit Medicaid patients to three prescription drugs a month and cap new enrollments of children into Medicaid if their parents earn more than 150 percent of the poverty level.
As the General Assembly considers the proposals, Susan Williams, chief executive officer of The Children's Trust of South Carolina, tells the newspaper, "Every state is suffering a bad economy, and South Carolina is no different. The question is 'How do you do targeted cuts that have the least amount of impact?'"
To learn more:
- read this article in The State
- see this piece in the Orlando Business Journal