Hospital lobbies legislators for bill to up compensation

Commissioners on the Whitman Hospital board are lobbying state legislators for a bill on Medicaid that would allow rural hospitals more access to more federal compensation for Medicaid.

Hospital administrator Dave Womack sent a letter to state legislators Susan Fagan, Mark Schoesler and Joe Schmick asking for their support of the bill.

The bill essentially provides a financing tool that certain hospitals could use to tax themselves and be matched for those funds by the federal government.

They do this by taking advantage of a temporarily increased Federal Medical Assistance Percentage rate.

For example, if Whitman hospital taxes itself $22,000, the federal government will charge them $22,000, and give the hospital $133,000 back. The hospital nets $112,000.

“It’s [the bill] reminiscent of an approach the legislature allowed nursing homes to use several years ago. I have some concerns as a result of that experience and will want to know more about what this proposal might mean for patients,” said Sen. Schoesler, who sits on the state Ways and Means committee which examined the bill last week.

That estimated $22,000 which the hospital must tax itself would come out of the hospital’s operating income, Womack said. Patient prices would not rise. The resulting $112,000 given back by the federal government would go back in to the hospital’s operating fund, he said.

Womack said the hospital has an interest in the bill in lieu of Whitman losing some Medicaid funds in cuts during last year’ legislative session.

“The bill’s intent is to partially mitigate the negative consequences of Medicaid cuts made during the last legislative session,” Womack wrote in his letter to the legislators.

When patients on Medicare visit the hospital, the hospital later charges the state for the cost of that visit.

The state later reimburses the hospital for the cost of those visits. State reimbursement of Medicare was partially cut last year, leaving hospitals with less compensation.

With the influx of these extra federal dollars, Womack said, Whitman hospital can make up a partial amount of what they are no longer receiving from the state in Medicare reimbursement.