CONCORD,NH – It was announced that the State of New Hampshire recently reached an agreement with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to repay a disallowance of $35 million in federal funds claimed by the NH Medicaid program in 2004.

This disallowance, the subject of a long-running dispute between the state and federal government, involves the New Hampshire Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payment program.

New Hampshire hospitals did not benefit from the federal funds received by the State of New Hampshire for the DSH program. Rather, it was the state’s general fund that benefitted from these federal dollars.  As such, hospitals should in no way be expected to contribute to the repayment of this disallowance.

Hospitals are still suffering as a result of the budget enacted this past summer that cut over $250 million in Medicaid reimbursements, the vast majority of which come from the imposition of the Medicaid Enhancement Tax (MET) and elimination of DSH payments to half of the hospitals in New Hampshire.

May 2012 bring true
happiness and
joy to all of you
and your families.
Hoping you all have a
Safe and Happy New Year.

May this season be the start for a better world.

From all of us at HealthCare Review
Connie and Dennis

I’d like to take a moment to share a great resource for people who have lost a loved one to suicide.  Every year, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, survivors of suicide loss all around the world come together to connect and offer support to each other.  It begins with a Teleconference which is offered at various sites worldwide where a panel of experts and survivors discuss healing after suicide loss.  Following the teleconference broadcast, each site has facilitators to help process the teleconference and attendees can share and offer support to each other.

When I lost my son to suicide 10 years ago, I wish I had known this resource was available to me.  Since I found out about the Annual Teleconference and have attended, it has been a great source of support to me.  Reaching out during a time of need is not easy, but if you’ve suffered with your own loss of a loved one (family member, friend, co-worker) to suicide, please come join one of these sites and take advantage of this great resource.

This year, the Healing after Suicide Loss Teleconference is on Saturday, Nov. 19th from 12:30 to 3:30 at nine different sites in NH: Concord, Hampstead, Littleton, Merrimack, Manchester (2 sites), No. Conway, Portsmouth, and Westmoreland.

Please see www.theconnectproject.org, www.naminh.org or call 1-800-242-6264 for more details and to register. The event is free of charge.  You don’t have to go through this alone.

Patty Grondin, Mother of Amos Paul who died on 7/13/01, Jefferson, New Hampshire

Patty Grondin, LCMHC
858 Meadows Road
Jefferson, NH   03583
pgrondin@hughes.net
(603)991-9092

Starting September 1, 2011, anyone can make submissions online at: www.bellevue.edu/neverforget.

Remember a friend or loved

In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the attacks, a number of media outlets across the country are taking an opportunity to remember local soldiers who gave their lives to protect our country. I’d like to propose remembering one fallen soldier every day (or once a week) during the month of September, or starting on 9/11.

Additionally, you can share the following opportunity with your audience – giving them an opportunity to take a personal step to honor a friend or loved one. It’s a great way to remember and heal.

Anyone across the nation can remember a friend or loved one by submitting a brief memoir of a fallen soldier to be included in a special book, “We Will Never Forget: Personal accounts honoring our fallen soldiers.” I think the neatest aspect of this book is that it will be written by “a proud nation” – those people from across the country (and in your local area) who submit their memoirs.

• Starting September 1, 2011, people can make submissions online at: www.bellevue.edu/neverforget.
• Submissions will be compiled today through Jan. 15, 2012.
• The final book will be released on Memorial Day of 2012.
• Proceeds from the book will be donated to the National Military Family Association to fund military spouse scholarships.

Remember a friend or loved one by submitting a brief memoir of a fallen soldier to be included in a special book, published by Bellevue University titled, “We Will Never Forget: Personal accounts honoring our fallen soldiers.” Submissions can be made online at: www.bellevue.edu/neverforget.

Submissions will be compiled Sept. 1, 2011 through Jan. 15, 2012.  And, Bellevue University will release the final book on Memorial Day of 2012.  Proceeds from the book will be donated to the National Military Family Association to fund military spouse scholarships.

The State of New Hampshire’s HAI report also shows that many of the efforts that hospitals and caregivers have undertaken in recent years … such as the adoption of a safety checklist in all procedure areas, participation in national efforts to eliminate blood stream infections, and improve hand hygiene compliance, among others … have had a dramatic impact on the quality of care in our state, and are helping to drive out the possibility of harm for patients when they come to the hospital. Although the report states that the numbers show a trend of improvement, we still have work to do to eliminate HAI’s in New Hampshire and we are committed to continuing our work together to do just that.

CONCORD, NH – Several hospitals stood up on behalf of their Medicaid patients and the communities they serve to say that the recently-enacted state budget violates federal law and should be stopped. As hospitals have been saying for months, this budget will have a devastating impact on the patients and communities they serve. The ability of hospitals to serve Medicaid, uninsured and all patients will be seriously threatened as they cope with and try to absorb over $250 million in spending reductions that were enacted as part of thisbudget.

For far too many years, hospitals have been put in this extremely unfortunate position of shouldering spending cuts to balance the state budget by the action of current and previous legislative and executive branch officials, which is why it is absolutely essential that they stand up on behalf of those who will be harmed by this budget: the patients and communities they serve.

This budget breaks the commitment that the State of New Hampshire made over 20 years ago when the Medicaid Enhancement Tax (MET) and disproportionate share hospital (DSH) program were created. The goal then was to leverage the tax on hospitals to generate additional federal revenue that could be used to help balance our state’s budget. Hospitals reluctantly went along with this scheme because of the commitment made by state leaders at the time and which has been upheld over the years to ensure that hospitals were not harmed by the imposition of this tax. And that is, in fact, what happened for 20 years. But this budget breaks that covenant and will now impose this tax on the very essence of hospitals’ charitable mission of providing care to those in need.

Hospitals understand the economic challenges our state is facing and have long sought to create a responsible budget that would spur economic growth, create jobs and maintain essential services to our state’s most vulnerable citizens. Unfortunately, the recently-enacted state budget is simply too great a burden to bear for hospitals, their patients, and the communities they serve.

Hospitals have been collaborating through the New Hampshire Hospital Association since 1934. The association’s mission is to provide leadership through advocacy, education and information in support of its member hospitals and health care delivery systems in delivering high quality health care to the patients and communities they serve.

“This budget will increase the cost of health insurance for businesses and individuals and threaten the availability of essential health care services that our communities depend on,” says David Ross, President/CEO of St. Joseph Hospital.

“Legislative leaders claim that they have balanced the State budget without raising new taxes,” says Tom Wilhelmsen, President/CEO of Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. “Nothing could be further from the truth. The proposed budget imposes a tremendous increase in taxes on hospitals – over $18 million alone on patients in the greater Nashua community!”

Proponents of this budget will argue that this tax has been on the books since 1991, but both hospital executives agree that this “tax” was never intended to be a real tax-it was created to generate additional federal revenue for the State while the tax was refunded to the hospitals.
Under the proposed budget, for almost every hospital in New Hampshire, the tax now paid will  exceed the total amount of reimbursements received from the State for taking care of New Hampshire Medicaid patients.

“And that’s a tax increase, plain and simple,” says Ross. “Don’t let anyone tell you differently. If the State needs to raise new tax dollars to pay its bills, there have to be more efficient ways to do that than the taxation of hospitals.”

Because of this tax, Wilhelmsen explains, “hospitals like Southern New Hampshire Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital will have no choice but to try to shift those costs to individuals and their employers through higher health insurance rates. So this is nothing more than an additional tax on private health insurance premiums.”

Both hospital CEOs are calling for the Governor to do the right thing.

“Governor Lynch should veto the House and Senate budget,” Ross says. “We urge our legislators to uphold the Governor’s veto and remove this huge tax on health care services.”

Wilhelmsen agrees. “We need to hold our legislators accountable for their role in maintaining the health of our community.”

Cutting over $250 million in payments to hospitals is unprecedented and simply too great a burden to bear for hospitals and the patients and communities who depend on them.

The largest cut to hospitals comes from what can only be described as a massive tax increase. For the past 20 years, hospitals have paid the Medicaid Enhancement Tax (MET) as a means of helping the state generate additional federal revenue that could be used to fund state government and received uncompensated care payments in recognition of their care for patients who have no insurance or are covered by the Medicaid program – a program that only pays about 50 cents for every dollar of the cost of taking care of Medicaid patients. But hospitals are now being asked to pay this tax and receive very little back in uncompensated care payments to offset those losses.

For hospitals, particularly the 13 larger hospitals in New Hampshire, this means that they will pay a tax that will exceed the amount of what they will receive for taking care of Medicaid patients. And for the 13 small, rural Critical Access Hospitals in the Granite State, the Senate Finance Committee’s approach would put them at risk as well.

The Senate’s offer to make uncompensated care payments to hospitals next year for care they provide to those without insurance this year if, and only if, there is a budget surplus will do very little for hospitals that will sustain losses of over $126.9 million this year alone and another $131.7 million next year. Before there’s even the opportunity to provide some relief, hospitals will have been forced to pay a tax worth millions of dollars and then deal with the resulting losses through attempts to shift these additional costs to private insurers, the reduction or elimination of services in their communities and the loss of jobs.

The New Hampshire Hospital Association cannot support this approach of balancing the budget on the backs of hospitals and the patients and communities they serve. We urge lawmakers to reject it.

It is not often that I have asked our readers to get involved with a project but this plea really hits to the heart of what a great organization is trying to provide to the most needy. It seems that our leaders in Washington, DC just don’t understand the effects of their actions.  This is not the place to cut the budget.  This program, which is provided by ABCD and other community action programs across American, serves the most needy and over the years has a proven track record of enabling people to move out of poverty, have access to education and job-training, get into jobs and pay taxes. These cuts, if enacted, would hurt the impoverished and the many members of the middle class who are sinking into poverty, putting an even larger financial burden on our government.  This is not the way to go.

I urge you to please take the time to read, sign and submit this petition. It would be greatly appreciated and your support is critically needed.

Thank you

Dennis P. McCullion
Publisher, HealthCare Review

The following is a letter from ABCD:

Dear friends, family, valued colleagues,
 
Please help us save ABCD and the community action network. The ill-conceived budget cuts proposed for the President’s budget could shut down ABCD and places like it across the nation, for a sum that is pure pennies in the context of the entire federal budget. Cutting these funds will hinder, not help, economic recovery. These are the programs that keep people out of expensive emergency shelters, that get them working and into jobs and paying taxes and celebrating America as the land of hope and opportunity. That enable children to do well in school and go on to college and careers. That give at-risk teenagers a voice and a purpose and the skills to move forward with their lives. That enable low-income seniors to live with dignity and be valued by society. Help ABCD and community action stay alive in America.
 
Please take a moment to sign the on-line petition. And send it on to your network as you see fit. THANK YOU!

Click here to sign a petition to Save CSBG and your community! http://www.petitiononline.com/4iA8vA4g/petition.html

 
Susan
 
Susan Kooperstein
ABCD Director of Public Affairs
178 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02111
 
617-348-6241 (office) 617-875-3619 (cell)

kooperstein@bostonabcd.org

http://www.bostonabcd.org/

http://www.capworks.org/

It is not often that I have asked our readers to get involved with a project but this plea really hits to the heart of what a great organization is trying to provide to the most needy. It seems that our leaders in Washington, DC just don’t understand the effects of their actions.  This is not the place to cut the budget.  This program, which is provided by ABCD and other community action programs across American, serves the most needy and over the years has a proven track record of enabling people to move out of poverty, have access to education and job-training, get into jobs and pay taxes. These cuts, if enacted, would hurt the impoverished and the many members of the middle class who are sinking into poverty, putting an even larger financial burden on our government.  This is not the way to go.

I urge you to please take the time to read, sign and submit this petition. It would be greatly appreciated and your support is critically needed.

Thank you

Dennis P. McCullion
Publisher, HealthCare Review

The following is a letter from ABCD:

Dear friends, family, valued colleagues,
 
Please help us save ABCD and the community action network. The ill-conceived budget cuts proposed for the President’s budget could shut down ABCD and places like it across the nation, for a sum that is pure pennies in the context of the entire federal budget. Cutting these funds will hinder, not help, economic recovery. These are the programs that keep people out of expensive emergency shelters, that get them working and into jobs and paying taxes and celebrating America as the land of hope and opportunity. That enable children to do well in school and go on to college and careers. That give at-risk teenagers a voice and a purpose and the skills to move forward with their lives. That enable low-income seniors to live with dignity and be valued by society. Help ABCD and community action stay alive in America.
 
Please take a moment to sign the on-line petition. And send it on to your network as you see fit. THANK YOU!

Click here to sign a petition to Save CSBG and your community! www.capworks.org

 
Susan
 
Susan Kooperstein
ABCD Director of Public Affairs
178 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02111
 
617-348-6241 (office) 617-875-3619 (cell)

kooperstein@bostonabcd.org

www.bostonabcd.org

www.capworks.org