Governor offers new plan to charge hospital fees

Rural hospitals worry about a new plan by Governor Sonny Perdue. He wants to cut-down the state’s Medicaid and Peachcare deficit with a new hospital fee. But that proposal could push some rural hospitals over the brink financially.

Within Georgia’s budget deficit of around two-billion dollars is a significant shortfall in funding for Medicaid and Peachcare--insurance for children of the working poor. Bert Brantley with the Governor’s office says it’s a crisis that needs a solution sooner than later:

"If we don’t do something, there will be significant cuts in reimbursement rates to hospitals...in the amount of people that can receive coverage from Medicaid and Peachcare--really some very difficult things that are going to cost us in the long run."

Earlier this year, a plan was put on the table that would charge health insurance companies extra fees. That offering drew strong push-back from insurers. Now, this new proposal would charge every hospital a flat fee based on a percentage of net revenues.

The money would be pooled to draw down more federal money for healthcare. Brantley says it’s something Georgia’s bigger hospitals that specialize in trauma care are clamoring for:

"They want help in the trauma area...they want increased rates for Medicaid. When they cover a Medicaid patient, they don’t get 100-percent for the cost they incur."

But Brantley acknowledges this plan could be a problem for smaller town and rural hospitals across Georgia that don’t offer trauma care and other services covered by federal money. 55 such hospitals in the state are represented by HomeTown Health--the organization’s president and CEO is Jimmy Lewis:

"In rural Georgia especially so many of the hospitals are already cash-starved where we have many who have less than 10 days cash on hand. For them to have to accept a tax on top of what they’re currently doing, especially a tax on current net revenues, would be a catastrophic blow to them."

Lewis says unemployment in rural areas leads to more people who can’t pay for services at those hospitals-making it even harder for hospital cash flow. He says perhaps up to 10 hospitals would be on the brink financially under the proposed fee.

The Governor’s office says the plan is being put forth now to spark full discussion, ahead of the General Assembly session next month.