Thread: Reimburse Hospitals For Illegal Immigrant's Emergency Care

http://www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S= ... v=23KtZflo

Reimburse Hospitals for Illegal Immigrants' Emergency Care


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hospitals and doctors in Arizona and other states can start charging the federal government for the costs of providing emergency care to undocumented immigrants.

The federal government may end up paying Arizona hospitals for taking care of illegal immigrants, and that could add up to $45 million a year for the next four years.

Administrators estimate the funding will cover up to 30 percent of the costs. By law hospitals are forced to take over the costs of caring for undocumented immigrants.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued final guidance Monday that sets up a system for reimbursement. Lawmakers set aside $1 billion over four years for the program, created by Medicare legislation passed in 2003.

For hospitals in border states like Arizona, the additional money can mean the difference between running a profitable business or an unprofitable one, said Don May, vice president of policy for the American Hospital Association.

"I don't know if it will completely change their financial picture, but for those hospitals on the border, this is going to make a difference in ensuring they are there to treat the patients, not just the undocumented ones, but all the patients living in those communities," May said.

Two-thirds of the money will be distributed to health care providers based on a state's percentage of undocumented aliens. The remaining third will go to providers in the six states with the
largest number of arrests of undocumented immigrants.

The states receiving the highest amounts in the current fiscal year are California, $70.8 million; Texas, $46 million; Arizona, $45 million; and New York, $12.25 million.

Payments to providers will be made on a quarterly basis and will be adjusted proportionately if the bills exceed the state's allocation.

The funding "is a good start (but) it doesn't completely cover all of the costs," Jeanine L'Ecuyer, a spokeswoman for Gov. Janet Napolitano, told The Arizona Republic.

A report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office showed Arizona got federal reimbursement for only 14 percent of its $100 million in costs in 2002 and 2003 for incarcerating undocumented immigrants accused of crimes.

Napolitano has been sending invoices to the federal government for those reimbursements since February.

On March 24, the Republic said Napolitano sent a bill for $195.6 million for the costs to Arizona's prison system for the years 2003, 2004 and part of 2005.

Hospitals are required to provide emergency care to patients regardless of their ability to pay or their status as citizens. May said hospitals were concerned that the federal government could have discouraged illegal immigrants from getting emergency care if information gathered from the patient was then used to deport them, but those concerns have eased.

May said hospitals would ask patients three questions: whether they are eligible for Medicaid, whether the patient has received a border crossing card, and whether a patient is foreign-born.

CMS administrator Mark McClellan told reporters in a conference call that the information would not be used to deport immigrants, but in rare circumstances, the information could be used in
criminal cases.

"We won't use this information in any immigration proceedings," McClellan stressed.

CMS assumed some patients would refuse to state their place of birth, so it will allow hospitals to allocate up to 10 percent of their claims to such cases.


Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: http://www.cms.hhs.gov
American Hospital Association: http://www.aha.org

What this comes down to, is the taxpayer is still picking up the tab.

I say deport them.

Americans have to pay for their own Health Care even when it is a burden and some can't afford it.

But the illegal alien gets it for free.

What country did you say we were living in?

It can be stopped in it's tracks with a

TAX STRIKE

Visualize what our "elected officials" would do if that were to ever happen?
Can you imagine the FEAR in the hallowed halls of Congress and the State Houses?

It will never happen!

Some would do it but the majority will not.

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

It can be stopped in it's tracks with a

TAX STRIKE

Visualize what our "elected officials" would do if that were to ever happen?
Can you imagine the FEAR in the hallowed halls of Congress and the State Houses?

TAX STRIKE! -- I Love the idea. But if we don't pay our taxes, what on earth will happen to the millions of illegals that we are supporting?