Posted on 08/04/2011 8:22:46 AM PDT by Hunton Peck
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hospitals in Massachusetts will reap an annual windfall of $275 million through a loophole enshrined in the new health care law. Hospitals in most other states will get less money as a result.
Hospital association executives in other states are up in arms over the news, buried in a Medicare regulation issued Monday. It comes at a time when hospitals face more cuts under the newly signed federal debt deal.
"If I could think of a better word than outrageous, I would come up with it," said Steve Brenton, president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
Even Medicare says it is concerned about "manipulation" of its inpatient payment rules to create big rewards for one state at the expense of others.
Hospitals in 41 states will lose money as result of the change. The biggest loser: New York, which is out $47.5 million.
Seven states come out ahead, though none do as well as Massachusetts. Runner-up New Jersey stands to gain $54 million, or about 20 percent of the Massachusetts windfall.
President Barack Obama's health care overhaul was supposed to lead to reforms in Medicare's byzantine payment system. Critics say this latest twist will encourage hospitals and other big players to game the system in a scramble for increasingly scarce taxpayer dollars.
The health care law "was to usher in a new era, based on innovations that focused on quality improvement and more efficient health care," said Herb Kuhn, president of the Missouri Hospital Association. "What we are seeing is innovation in the area of how to manipulate the payment system."
"It subverts any notion of fairness and equity in developing the rates," said Laurens Sartoris, president of the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association. "It's someone going through the backdoor to get special treatment...."
(Excerpt) Read more at centurylink.net ...
Every day we seem to discover more and more outrageous info in Zero’s health bill....defund it!
The last dozen or so paragraphs tell the tale ... Mass hospitals gamed the system, steps were taken in 2008 to prevent that, and sKerry intervened via Obamacare, reinstating the loophole. What he says was righting a past “cut” is in fact re-enabling a cheat. JMHO
Reading between the lines, an outcome such as this is known as rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies. The Chicago way of healthcare!
Thanks for the succinct and accurate summary!
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