Thread: Fourth Georgia hospital closes due to Obamacare payment cuts

Fourth Georgia hospital closes due to Obamacare payment cuts

9:27 PM 02/18/2014

The fourth Georgia hospital in two years is closing its doors due to severe financial difficulties caused by Obamacare’s payment cuts for emergency services.
The Lower Oconee Community Hospital is, for now, a critical access hospital in southeastern Georgia that holds 25 beds. The hospital is suffering from serious cash-flow problems, largely due to the area’s 23 percent uninsured population, and hopes to reopen as “some kind of urgent care center,” CEO Karen O’Neal said.
Many hospitals in the 25 states that rejected the Medicaid expansion are facing similar financial problems. Liberal administration ally Think Progress has already faulted Georgia for not expanding Medicaid as Obamacare envisioned.
But the reality is more complicated. The federal government has historically made payments to hospitals to cover the cost of uninsured patients seeking free medical care in emergency rooms, as federal law mandates that hospitals must care for all patients regardless of their ability to pay.
Because the Affordable Care Act’s authors believed they’d forced all states to implement the Medicaid expansion, Obamacare vastly cut hospital payments, the Associated Press reports.
The Supreme Court ruled that states could reject the Medicaid expansion in 2012, as part of the decision that upheld Obamacare generally. Since that decision, the Obama administration has so far instituted 28 unilateral delays and changes to the health care law’s implementation without congressional approval, Fox Business reports.
From verifying eligibility for subsidies to enforcing employer requirements, the Obama administration has already taken a hacksaw to the health care reform law, but it has made no changes to the provision raising problems for half the nation’s hospitals.
While the feds wait for financial pressure to force states to act, several state governments have been taking things into their own hands. Some have criticized these moves as “hospital bailouts.”

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Tags: Medicaid, Obamacare

http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/18/fo...-payment-cuts/

Fourth Georgia hospital closes due to Obamacare payment cuts...

Health Law's Impact Has Only Begun...


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FlyoverCulture.com

More dire fall-out due to ‪#‎Obamacare‬: Hospitals are closing due to cuts in reimbursements to cover uninsured and low-income patients.

http://bit.ly/1oR7ylb

Man’s Back Surgery On Hold As Doctors Deny Covered California Coverage

February 18, 2014 11:43 PM
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Covered California
Nick Janes joined KOVR/KMAX in December 2008 as a reporter.

Video at the Page Link:

SONORA (CBS13) — A Sonora mechanic is in so much pain that he can barely walk, but he can’t seem to find a doctor to fix his ailing back after he and his wife switched their insurance coverage through Covered California.
Chris Dunn reached out to CBS13 hoping we could get answers.
He needs his surgery yesterday. But instead of scheduling his date, he and his wife are navigating a confusing maze of doctors and insurance plans.
“Then it goes down, my feet are numb, like I can do this, and I can’t feel it at all,” he said.
His ailing back has him in almost constant agonizing pain. He walks with a limp and hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in months.
“I can’t sleep on my back,” he said. “I roll around all night, because I can’t lay flat. I can’t lay anywhere for more than five, 10 minutes.”
He’s still working, despite the pain. But finding a surgeon to fix his back has turned into a full-time jobof its own.
“We get this coverage and go to the best doctor to fix Chris, and they tell us we’re out of network,” said his wife Tammy.
In January, they transitioned from an Anthem Blue Cross Plan over to Blue Cross Covered California. She says they had to switch to avoid the premium skyrocketing, but didn’t realize their provider network would be smaller.
We took their concerns to Covered California’s Dana Howard to get answers.
“A lot of people, this is the first time they’re purchasing insurance,” he said.
For privacy reasons, he couldn’t comment on the specific case, but said in general that consumers should do their research before purchasing plans.
“I would suggest they contact the plan to make sure what doctors are available to them,” he said.
Tammy says she finally found an in-network doctor, but the problems don’t end there. We looked him up using the couple’s plan info, and the Blue Cross website shows him as in-network.
But that same doctor’s officer told Tammy he won’t see patients with insurance from Covered California.
“It’s like we’re a second-class citizen,” she said. “We can’t get the coverage we need.”
For Chris, it’s another stop in a long road to the surgery he needs.
“To this point where it feels like I’m going to be in pain,” he said. “I can’t find nobody to do it.”
CBS13 wasn’t able to reach the doctor tonight, and a late-hour contact with Blue Cross didn’t get to the bottom of it, so we’re still pushing for answers.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/...rnia-coverage/