Geary Community Hospital Administrator Dr. Joseph Stratton has released a letter explaining that he has been asked what he believes will happen to the new-world-order of healthcare reform once President-Elect Donald Trump, his cabinet, and Congress takes office in 2017.
“In short, my thought is the Patient Protection & Accountability Care Act ( commonly known as ACA or Obamacare ) will not be totally replaced, but certainly modified by the new administration. How quickly this might occur remains to be seen, but I suspect that it will be over the course of some months. Trump has always said a repeal-and-replace of the ACA would happen, yet he recently has made comments showing a softening on a couple of points like patients’ pre-existing conditions and adult children being able to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26.
In any case, it will be interesting to see what the next few months bring to us all in the delivery of healthcare throughout the nation. I would like briefly to give you a look into the current healthcare landscape in Junction CIty, Geary County and Kansas. Here at GCH our patient and payer mix consist of some 65% made up of Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare; these are government programs not known for generous reimbursements. Private insurance companies like Aetna, BlueCross/BlueShield, CIgna and others create additional downward financial pressure on us by scaling back their reimbursements. Take it one step further and you will see high deductibles make it much harder for our patients to pay for services, which ultimately drives our charity care and bad debt upward. Last year, GCH provided over $1.3 million in free-care, or what we call “charity care” in the business, to numerous needy patients and families who qualified for assistance.
Furthermore, when the ACA was passed on March 23, 2010, an expansion of the Medicaid system was baked in it to allow for federal funds to assist each state in providing more healthcare to the most vulnerable populations. A U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed individual state governments to choose if they wanted to expand their Medicaid programs to accept these federal funds. The lawmakers in Topeka have refused to move ahead with Medicaid Expansion, which has meant GCH going without some $1.8 million over the past two years.
GCH is not alone in this financial struggle, as the Kansas Hospital Association estimates the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid has cost all Kansas hospitals over $1.3 billion ( with a B ) for unreimbursed care. Remember, these funds not only effect healthcare, but local businesses and schools. Expansion isn’t just a healthcare issue — it’s a major economic issue.
Even more this past July the Governor’s office dealt yet another blow to hospitals statewide, with a sudden decision to decrease all Medicaid payments by 4% in an attempt to help address the state’s budget shortfalls. This unexpected decision by policymakers meant about a $200,000 take-away from GCH for the budget year.
All of these factors together, which for the most part are uncontrollable, ultimately drive charity care and bad debt upward every year. As stated earlier, the $1.3 million in free-care to numerous needy patients and families, the additional $1.8 million we have foregone without Medicaid Expansion, plus an approximate $200,000 in Medicaid cuts diverted away from healthcare funding by the Governor, would have covered most of our charity care to the communities we serve.
Still, despite these many challenges this past year we at GCH on your behalf, have further developed our community relations, education, and patient services to help you and your family be well and live healthy. In January we added two orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Peter Hodges and Dr. Adam Chase, with their physician assistants Justin Schlepp and Daren Badura. Also, we launched our Medical Explorers program in conjunction with the Boy Scouts and Junction City High School. This practical, hands-on class provides local high school students with quality insight of various aspects of the medical industry. Not only are we helping kids learn about all the great careers in the healthcare world, but we are also helping “grow our own” in hopes they may enjoy rural healthcare and come back to work for us someday. The class started with 20 students and has now grown to over 60 participating youth!
In February, we hosted our inaugural Go Red for Women event called “Ladies Night Out.” This educational community event focused on the importance of heart healthy lifestyles and added in some fun with food, shopping, music and camaraderie with friends. We are gearing up for our second year and planning for another great event, so please mark your calendars for Tuesday, February 21.
The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner / Sexual Assault Response Team program was launched in the springtime. While this program is an unfortunate reality in today’s society, it was established with the partnership of the Geary County Sheriff’s Office, Junction City Police Department, Geary Community Healthcare Foundation and the Geary County Commission.
We kept busy throughout the spring and summer with our seasonal farmers market held in the front parking lot of the hospital. Now in its third season the market added an EBT system for users of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ( SNAP ) benefits. This important service was made possible through a government grant awarded to the Geary County Health Department. SNAP recipients are now able to swipe their care, and then receive tokens back in dollars to buy fresh food items.
Our strong Rago Radiology team followed suit by increasing their engagement and services. In early fall we were glad to bring PETS-CT ( Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography ) services to GCH on a weekly basis. This hybrid technology enables us to more accurately diagnose and locate cancers while increasing patient comfort. This service is available to us every Tuesday by appointment. The department was also recently awarded accreditation in Magnetic Resonance Imaging ( MRI ) and Computed Tomography ( CT ) by the American College of Radiology ( ACR ), the largest and oldest imaging accrediting body in the U.S. This ACR gold seal of accreditation tells our patients and families they can expect to receive the best standard of care here at GCH.
We do not have a crystal ball at GCH to tell you the future, yet we want you to know we are trying hard to provide the best healthcare or you and your family, even with the financial and regulatory challenges of today and tomorrow. GCH has a healthcare system full of dedicated and competent workers who are great at their work and care deeply about your well being. We will continue in 2017 to persevere on your behalf in this rapidly changing healthcare landscape.