FORUM CEO \ Letter to Obama Walter Pishkur, president and chief executive officer of Forum Health, wrote President Barack Obama asking for financial help for his hospital system and the health care

Pishkur asked Obama to allow access to federal stimulus package resources by health care providers in the following areas:

Funding for technology: Electronic medical records and diagnostic equipment.

Increase the funding pool for inner-city, economically challenged health care facilities. This would help with infrastructure and facility upgrades.

Provide reimbursement for services provided to the uninsured and under-insured. Forum Health provides more than $30 million of charity health care annually.

Decrease the thresholds for borrowing funds for nonprofits. Hospitals saw interest payments on borrowed funds increase by an average of 15 percent from July to September 2008 versus the same period last year.

Expedite Medicaid/State Children’s Health Insurance Program waivers.

Enhance the domestic supply of nurse faculty through capitation grants to eligible schools of nursing.

Create incentives to purchase tax-exempt bonds.

Eliminate payment cuts to teaching hospitals. They are the lifeline of our future health system.

Include rehabilitation hospitals in the health information technology incentive program to improve patient health, continuity and care coordination.

Source: Forum Health