In another example of rural hospitals struggling to keep their doors open, a state Senate committee in New Mexico hopes to receive compromise legislation to direct tens of millions of tax dollars to funding for its state's rural hospitals, four or five of which officials say are on the brink of shutting their doors, Winthrop Quigley reports for the Albuquerque Journal.
"Hospitals hope to cobble together a package that includes the $36 million from a mandatory one-eighth percent gross receipts tax from the counties, about $10 million in state funds, and a federal contribution that is contingent on the state and county funding," Quigley writes. "The combination would generate $192 million statewide to help offset the cost of uncompensated care and the cost of caring for indigent patients. The counties, however, have objected that the funding plan usurps their responsibility to determine how taxes raised within the county are to be spent and that the funds raised would go to a pool instead of being spent on in-county hospitals. The New Mexico Association of Counties has pushed for a one-sixteenth percent tax that would raise about $18 million."
New Mexico, which is expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, is having its Medicare payment cuts by "about $75 million a year, federal budget cuts that cost New Mexico hospitals $16.2 million a year and state Medicaid payment cuts that have reduced outpatient payments to hospitals by $250 million a year, according to the hospital association," Quigley writes. As a result, many rural hospitals have cut services, with three eliminating obstetric services, while others "are eliminating home health care, clinics and physicians’ offices." (Read more)
"Hospitals hope to cobble together a package that includes the $36 million from a mandatory one-eighth percent gross receipts tax from the counties, about $10 million in state funds, and a federal contribution that is contingent on the state and county funding," Quigley writes. "The combination would generate $192 million statewide to help offset the cost of uncompensated care and the cost of caring for indigent patients. The counties, however, have objected that the funding plan usurps their responsibility to determine how taxes raised within the county are to be spent and that the funds raised would go to a pool instead of being spent on in-county hospitals. The New Mexico Association of Counties has pushed for a one-sixteenth percent tax that would raise about $18 million."
"Part of the debate is whether counties would impose a new tax or whether the funds could come from some existing revenue source," Quigley writes. "Smaller community hospitals around the state have been hit
especially hard by federal budget cuts and reductions in Medicare and
Medicaid reimbursement rates. Shrinking populations are another factor. The hospitals already have cut services but say they can’t cut enough to make up for the reductions."
New Mexico, which is expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, is having its Medicare payment cuts by "about $75 million a year, federal budget cuts that cost New Mexico hospitals $16.2 million a year and state Medicaid payment cuts that have reduced outpatient payments to hospitals by $250 million a year, according to the hospital association," Quigley writes. As a result, many rural hospitals have cut services, with three eliminating obstetric services, while others "are eliminating home health care, clinics and physicians’ offices." (Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment