Fourth Georgia hospital closes due to Obamacare payment cuts

DailyCaller: The fourth Georgia hospital in two years is closing its doors due to severe financial difficulties caused by Obamacare’s payment cuts for emergency services.

The Lower Oconee Community Hospital is, for now, a critical access hospital in southeastern Georgia that holds 25 beds. The hospital is suffering from serious cash-flow problems, largely due to the area’s 23 percent uninsured population, and hopes to reopen as “some kind of urgent care center,” CEO Karen O’Neal said.

Many hospitals in the 25 states that rejected the Medicaid expansion are facing similar financial problems. Liberal administration ally Think Progress has already faulted Georgia for not expanding Medicaid as Obamacare envisioned.

But the reality is more complicated. The federal government has historically made payments to hospitals to cover the cost of uninsured patients seeking free medical care in emergency rooms, as federal law mandates that hospitals must care for all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

Because the Affordable Care Act’s authors believed they’d forced all states to implement the Medicaid expansion, Obamacare vastly cut hospital payments, the Associated Press reports.

The Supreme Court ruled that states could reject the Medicaid expansion in 2012, as part of the decision that upheld Obamacare generally. Since that decision, the Obama administration has so far instituted 28 unilateral delays and changes to the health care law’s implementation without congressional approval, Fox Business reports.

From verifying eligibility for subsidies to enforcing employer requirements, the Obama administration has already taken a hacksaw to the health care reform law, but it has made no changes to the provision raising problems for half the nation’s hospitals.

While the feds wait for financial pressure to force states to act, several state governments have been taking things into their own hands. Some have criticized these moves as “hospital bailouts.”

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Hospital Mergers: A Result of Health Reform?

Hospital mergers are the latest trend in health care.

But far from a passing fad, the number of mergers and acquisitions are expected to rise as health systems adjust to the federal health care reform.

Locally, St. Benedicts Family Medical Center in Jerome announced last week it was discussing joining with St. Luke’s Health System. Many of the details of the deal have not been released, but one of the reasons spurring the merger is health care reform.

“For St. Luke’s, acquiring St. Ben’s has everything to do with reform,” said David Pate, chief executive officer of St. Luke’s Health System.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, health care systems will be required to reduce costs and improve their quality of patient care. However, this becomes difficult when hospitals face expensive technological upgrades paired with shrinking private and public reimbursements.

To find new ways to bear the costs, independent hospitals have increasingly signed on with larger health systems in the past year.

There were 27 merger deals across the nation in the second quarter of 2011, up from nine for those months of 2010, according to Irving Levin Associates, a health care industry merger and acquisition data publisher.

Partnering with a larger hospital affords providers more resources and distributes costs across both entities.

“Health care reform law is accelerating a trend that was already developing,” Pate said.

The reform puts financial incentive on preventive care actions. Unlike in the past, doctors will get paid for value, not volume.

St. Luke’s will benefit integrating with St. Benedicts because it will be able to coordinate care between the Twin Falls and Jerome areas, Pate said.

“Now it’s not just patients in our hospitals, but looking at the whole population and seeing how do we promote health,” he said.

Though some fear the changes resulting from health care reform will lead to employee layoffs as providers seek to meet costs, St. Luke’s will only consider cutting jobs as a last resort, Pate said.

“We feel especially sensitive to this issue. We are the largest employer in the state and we help drive the economy,” he said. “It’s important we recognize our role in the economy. We have the opportunity to look at care processes and find how we can prevent avoidable complications and preventable hospital admissions.”

Source: MagicValley.com

Catholics Fear ‘Stealth’ Abortion Push in Healthcare... Could Add to Shortages in Government-run Healthcare

A Catholic mother holds her 2-year-old son as she visits the Sacred Heart of Mary Memorial Wall for the Unborn near Boulder, Colo., where thousands of fetal remains are buried. (AP Photo)

With Democrats planning a September vote on a sweeping new healthcare plan, America’s Catholic leadership is becoming increasingly concerned that the legislation will lead to federal funding of abortions.

Though U.S. Catholic bishops have long supported universal healthcare, they now find themselves in the troublesome position of seeing such a program fund abortion.

The implications of government-controlled healthcare would have serious implications for Catholic health institutions. One in eight hospitals in the United States is affiliated with the Catholic Church, according to The Wall Street Journal. They employ 750,000 people and care for 16 percent of all hospital admissions.

If government bureaucrats or the courts mandated abortion coverage, it could place the nation’s Catholic hospitals in a difficult situation. Some Catholic leaders have threatened to close their facilities if they are forced to conduct abortion procedures.

If Democratic healthcare reform becomes law, it will engender a huge expansion of abortion, said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.

"You know, one of the side issues that nobody pays any attention to, this healthcare plan will be the largest expansion of abortion in the United States since Roe v. Wade," Franks said on Fox News on Sunday. "Only this time, it will be paid for with taxpayer dollars."

"People don't see that as healthcare," he added.

In late July, Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, wrote a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee warning that "much-needed reform must not become a vehicle for promoting an 'abortion rights' agenda."

In Massachusetts, the state-run health plan already subsidizes abortions for low and moderate-income women. This has created conflict between Church and state due to the requirement for Catholic hospitals to provide abortion referrals. The mandate flies in the face of Catholic teaching, and the Church hopes to keep this from happening nationwide.

Before the 1977 Hyde Amendment barred Medicaid from paying for abortions, courts and bureaucrats mandated abortion coverage because it was legal and not excluded from Medicaid. This precedent has reinforced Catholic concerns, because the House version of the healthcare reform bill lacks specific language barring abortion coverage.

Rigali's letter took issue with provisions of the bill, asserting that it could lead to federal funding of abortions and thereby violate the spirit of the Hyde Amendment.

“The legislation delegates to the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to make abortion a basic or essential benefit in all health plans, or in the 'public plan' created by the legislation,” Rigali wrote. “This would be a radical change.”

Rigali also expressed concern that provisions in the bill requiring “timely access to all benefits covered by qualified health plans” could be used by the courts to invalidate state laws regulating abortions, such as those aimed at promoting a woman’s safety and parental notification.

His letter calls for the protection of conscience rights to prevent pro-life healthcare providers from being discriminated against if they decline to be involved with abortions.

The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, and Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, echo the cardinal’s concerns and contend the healthcare legislation would cover abortions by default.

“This is a stealth FOCA bill,” Pavone said, referring to the Freedom of Choice Act.

That bill would guarantee women the "fundamental right" to "terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability," or to protect the life of the mother. Catholic opposition has prevented it from coming up for a vote this year.

“We know the provisions remain the goals of the abortion advocates, and healthcare reform offers them a good opportunity to put part of it in the bill," Pavone said.

"They may say [the bill] doesn’t mention abortion, but we say that unless abortion is specifically excluded from the bill, it is included.”

Catholics United, a left-leaning Catholic group, contends that the Capps amendment addresses Cardinal Rigali’s concerns and those of other pro-life Catholics. The amendment, which Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., introduced, passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee on July 30.

Supporters say it would bar the use of federal money to directly fund abortions, while allowing the funding of plans that provide abortions. It also includes a conscience provision that would bar discrimination against health providers who refuse to be involved with abortions, and would prevent state laws regulating abortion from being preempted.

“Capps is as close to a 95 percent abortion-neutral bill as we can get,” said Chris Korzen of Catholics United. “Work still needs to be done on specific parts, but the Capps amendment is still a little ways away from [providing] a true common ground on this issue.”

Donohue and others remain unconvinced that the Capps amendment would prevent federal dollars from being used to fund abortions.

“There is no question that the AP and New York Times are right that it does in fact provide funding for abortion,” Donohue said. “When [Republican Congressman Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania] put the question to counsel asking if it would allow for funding of abortion, he was told it would, so it is not a moot question.”

Passage of a healthcare reform package that angers Catholics could make abortion a huge issue in upcoming elections. Catholics number slightly more than 68 million in the U.S., according to the Official Catholic Directory 2009. They constitute 22 percent of the population, making them a key swing-voting group.

If the healthcare reform passes as it is written in HR 3200…

• By the fact that the abortion issue (or any other issue or illness is not addressed means it will be covered under government-run healthcare.
• There will be huge upswing in abortions and you will be paying for those services one way or other… whether you and or anyone in your family are having that procedure and whether or not you and your family believe in choice or are pro-life.
• Pro-life medical practitioners and facilities will forced to perform those procedures whether it is against their convictions and beliefs or not.
• In trying to cover an additional 27 million people without increasing costs and after reducing doctor’s pay, there will be a doctor and medical practitioner shortage. If pro life doctors, nurses and technicians leave medicine the shortage will be unimaginable. People in England and Canada wait years sometime just to get a primary care doctor.
• One in eight hospitals in the United States is affiliated with the Catholic Church. They employ 750,000 people and care for 16 percent of all hospital admissions. Should the Church decided to close those hospitals, if they lose the fight, the medical care shortages in all areas will be insurmountable.
• “This is a stealth FOCA bill,the Freedom of Choice Act (read details above).
• This bill is another attempt to enact and force things onto the American people without even the honesty to tell them what is in the bill, what is government’s real intent… short and long-run, and what it will cost.

By: John Rossomando - Monday, August 10, 2009 7:08 PM – NewsWeek

Posted: TrueHealthIsTrueWealth