You might have wondered why I started covering the national health care issue, rather than more local problems. The latest poll that came through might be a reason. Currently 48% of the surveyed population are rating the health care system we have as good or excellent, as opposed to 29% last year. And, we're going into a congressional recess.
What does that mean, locally? With the announcement of the possibility of increased taxes on the "middle class", there is a real chance that the health care bill will stall, if not fail. Medicare cuts have already been projected. What are most of the Essent hospitals dependent on? Federal programs.
PRMC is currently, if I'm not mistaken, considered as part of the metroplex in Medicare reimbursement levels. The new cuts will leave the rural rates alone and cut into metro. So, a quandary: Will the new rates drop below the rural, equal them, or stay above? How much of a cut w
ill PRMC take? Hmmm?
ill PRMC take? Hmmm? Quite possibly Nashville was sitting back, confident that a lot of the self-pay/no-pay would now be covered, pushing their revenue levels up. Now, the projection might not be so rosy...possibly equivalent to a lump of coal in their stocking.
9 comments:
"The latest poll that came through might be a reason. Currently 48% of the surveyed population are rating the health care system we have as good or excellent ..."
The uninformed consumer gets what he/she deserves. In this case, it happens to be a broken healthcare system that also just happens to be the most expensive in the world.
Keep voting the EXACT same people into office though.
/thinking = bad m'kay
IIRC, I thought the Paris area was considered rural, not part of the Metro area. Otherwise, how do you explain the losses Christus was taking in lowered Medicare payments several years ago?
When renewal was due, while we were under the Metro area, someone forgot to renew. When they did, it was considered to be rural...a large loss in revenue...and bringing us closer to our current employer.
That "oh, I forgot" should have been grounds for dismissal. No question under Essent.
Can someone point a finger at the individual that forgot to do the renewal paperwork?
As to the first comment: bent, but fixable.
Let me put it this way, only 19% rate it as poor.
Now, if I were a representative, I'd be very careful with my voting if I knew those numbers were that skewed.
Maybe Obama's "Present, but not voting" would be the ticket....
I am seeing patients every day and have YET to have a patient tell me that the system is broken. We all agree that things need fixing, but the system is NOT BROKEN. This is about CONTROL, nothing more and nothing less.
There are always ways to tweak a system. And, some of the provisions of the plan are good.
Here's the rub: The intrepretation of the bill. The liberals have one slant, the conservatives another. Question being: "In a worst case scenerio, could it actually be interpreted that way?" If the answer is yes, count on it happening--since we don't live in a perfect world.
Great, but it wasn't Paris!
No one is saying that the system couldn't be made better--but let's not throw away the good, just reform the bad.
For some strange reason, the UK's NHS gets brought up whenever health-care is mentioned. TIME magazine stated that we're (UK'ers) quick to put it down, but fierce when defending it. I think it's the fact that if we agree then it'll get taken away and we can wave goodbye to 'free' health-care - even thought we pay for almost all of it these days.
- Matt
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