Fix Health Care Policy

Hospices Reveal Obamacare’s Impact

Two hospice care centers are struggling to make ends meet, and Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare are to blame.

Hospices—health care facilities for the terminally ill—along with other Medicare providers are facing Medicare pay cuts. Of the $716 billion in payment reductions, hospice care was hit by a $17 billion payment cut from 2013 to 2022.

Now, contrary to all of the misleading claims, this effect is already beginning.

San Diego Hospice recently laid off 260 workers, closed a 24-bed hospital, and has recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. San Diego Hospice’s financial condition is attributed mainly to reduced Medicare reimbursement, fewer patients, and a federal audit that hurt the center’s reputation.

Another provider, Delaware Hospice, had to lay off 52 workers, citing lower federal reimbursement as the cause. “The decision,” said CEO Susan Lloyd, “is a direct result of a consequential decline in census and the need to position the organization to meet additional changes and challenges that the hospice industry anticipates with health care reform.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: care, federal reimbursement, hospice care, low pay, Medicare cuts, ObamaCare, providers

Doctors Want Reform but Fear Impact on Business

In a new study, health care providers said they want reform measures, but expressed concerns about how certain proposals from Congress (pay-for-performance financing and public health insurance plans) could adversely affect their businesses and patients. Additionally, more than 50 percent of the 500-plus respondents said they believed the billions of dollars from the economic stimulus package toward health information technology will have little to no success in encouraging greater tech adoption in the health sector.

Tags: health information technology, providers