Earlier this month, in response to union and media claims that HPP payments to hospitals are out of control, BWC announced it would slash hospital inpatient payment rates by 21 percent and outpatient rates by 17 percent, across the board, effective Oct. 1.  In a Aug. 10 letter to BWC interim administrator Tina Kielmeyer, OHA asked the bureau to reconsider, stating the plan does not make sense and amounts to the bureau's reneging on an earlier agreement to freeze 2005 HPP payment rates and install inflation-based caps for 2006 and 2007.  

Although OHA appreciates that BWC responded to some of the association’s concerns expressed in its Aug. 10 letter, BWC did not give OHA the opportunity to analyze the new plan and seek feedback from member hospitals. At a time when Ohio’s hospitals already face major reductions from another government payer, Medicaid, the new plan will leave many hospitals with unexpected budget holes come Oct. 1. OHA will provide member hospitals with additional details as soon as possible. (Charles Cataline, charlesc@ohanet.org; Tiffany Himmelreich, tiffanyh@ohanet.org)

OHA Board: Fight For Medicaid; Standardize Uncompensated Care Reports

The OHA Board of Trustees approved an all-out effort to ward off state plans to slash more than $100 million in payments to hospitals for care of Medicaid beneficiaries at its August meeting. The Board also called on hospitals to use costs, not charges, as the basis for quantifying their uncompensated care.

The $100 million-plus Medicaid cut is planned as a recalibration of what hospitals are paid by the state and federal government to care for certain indigent patients, mostly elderly and children. When other cuts and a state Medicaid freeze are added, Ohio hospitals stand to lose more than $200 million in the coming year on Medicaid alone.

Board members encouraged local hospital involvement to help legislators understand how the loss will affect care. Every hospital has been notified of its specific loss, and is being encouraged to translate the dollars into jobs and services at risk.

The Board accepted a Finance Committee recommendation urging Ohio hospitals to report their uncompensated care on a cost basis for a uniform approach statewide. The new policy also advises against including contractual adjustments but would add bad debt after reasonable collection attempts. The Board also endorsed the Lyon Software community benefit reporting system used by the Catholic Healthcare Association and the Voluntary Hospitals of America as the preferred format for reporting the value hospitals provide.

In other action, the Board:

• Created a Strategic Issue Fund to allow OHA to respond as needed to significant issues impacting member hospitals, similar to the 2004 campaign on the importance of the Ohio Supreme Court to the medical malpractice insurance crisis.
• Updated principles for the Hospital Care Assurance Program.
• Approved a new code of conduct, incorporating a conflict of interest policy.
• Approved creation of the FutureThink Institute to continue work toward reducing hospital operating costs and decreasing staff turnover.