Ohio children’s hospitals wary of health-care bill

CLEVELAND (AP) — Ohio children’s hospitals say they will be hurt disproportionately by funding cuts in proposed federal health-care legislation because of the large percentage of patients they serve who are covered by Medicaid.

Health-care proposals currently being considered by Congress could cut up to $876.6 million in so-called “disproportionate share” payments to hospitals, which are designed to offset expenses incurred by hospitals that care for large numbers of patients who are uninsured or covered by Medicaid.

More than 50 percent of children cared for by Akron and Cleveland’s Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital are on Medicaid, for example, compared with 12 percent at general hospitals.

Children’s hospital officials fear the funding cuts would be particularly damaging to them. Industry officials say Medicaid only covers 67 percent of the cost of care, leaving hospitals to depend on the federal payments and private insurance to recoup their costs.

“It could be a disaster,” said Akron Children’s Hospital Executive Vice President Shawn Lyden. “I think there’s either a fundamental lack of understanding or a misconception in Washington around what this means for children’s hospitals.”

The National Association of Children’s Hospitals is lobbying lawmakers to rethink the cuts.

Backers of the federal legislation contend that one of the major goals of health-care legislation — to drastically reduce the number of uninsured patients — will largely erase the need for the federal payments. But children’s hospital officials believe this is further evidence that Congress doesn’t understand their predicament.

Children’s hospitals already care for few uninsured patients, and won’t see the spike in newly insured patients that lawmakers expect will make up for the loss of the payments, said Nick Lashutka, president of the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association. The latest U.S. Census figures have found that 94.2 percent of Ohioans under 18 years old are covered by some form of insurance.

“We’ve been struggling to get this on the map of policy- makers,” Lashutka said. “It’s hard to get the attention of folks to understand some of the unintended consequences.”

Mike Farrell, president of UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, estimates that the hospital would lose $20 million in federal funding over five years under current health-care legislation.