The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Editorials

December 11, 2007

Our View — Medicare problem seen locally

A recent report on Immanuel St. Joseph’s Hospital charity care offered hints at a larger problem looming with the federal government’s Medicare system.

A report on Minnesota hospitals’ community contributions and charity care showed the local hospital provided the community with $40 million worth of benefits in 2006. The vast majority of that money, about $39.8 million came in the form of free and reduced cost medical services.

The report is a mandate from the Minnesota Legislature in response to calls for hospitals to show just how much they are contributing to the community in exchange, so to speak, for their tax-exempt status. Of course, hospital officials say it’s their mission to serve those who need medical care even if the hospital never receives payment.

Policymakers and elected officials would be well-advised to heed that statement. In most cases, it is against the law in the United States to deny someone emergency treatment or needed medical treatment if they cannot pay. The costs of such service is eventually paid by all those who pay taxes, or pay health insurance premiums.

A large part of that uncompensated care comes from serving patients on the government’s Medicare system. The Minnesota Hospital Association says that reimbursement rates set by the government do not cover the cost of providing services to Medicare patients. In Minnesota, that amount of uncovered costs is $917 million.

And those costs will continue to rise. ISJ’s costs for uncompensated care rose by $4.3 million in 2006 compared to a year earlier. That’s more than 10 percent.

Unfortunately, the Medicare reimbursement system is one that has needed fixing for some time. Mostly healthy states in the Midwest, including Minnesota, have generally low reimbursements rates for a number of reasons, but mostly because we don’t get sick as much and lead healthier lifestyles. Yet, when Minnesota Medicare recipients do need care, the state’s physicians and hospitals lose out with lower than average reimbursement rates.

With health care at the top of the list with voters in the upcoming presidential election, there’s a need for candidates to address the inequity in Medicare reimbursement rates and look for bigger solutions to a system that will see a great increase in need, but a reduction in our ability to pay for it.

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