Healthcare Overhaul “All Good” for Hospitals

Nashville’s non-profit hospitals and the for-profit hospital chains based here only stand to gain from health care overhaul proposals in Washington. A former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is following developments for the Tennessee Hospital Association.

Each year, hospitals get a combined $40 billion from Medicare and Medicaid for treating uninsured patients. But Tom Scully says neither the House nor Senate health care bills substantially lower that subsidy, even though hospitals should see fewer uninsured patients.

“If you’re going to spend $40 billion in backdoor subsidies to hospitals today and you’re going to make sure all these new people are coming in with insurance cards, maybe you should take that $40 billion down to 20 or 15.”

Scully headed CMS under the Bush Administration until 2004 and the Federation of American Hospitals before that. He says hospital CEO’s aren’t complaining because health care overhaul is “all good” for them.

“If you really want to do the right thing and finance this thing and pay for it, hospitals should probably be taking a bigger hit as should probably a lot of the providers, but that’s not likely to happen.”

Squeezing cost savings out of the current system was initially proposed as a way to pay for expanded insurance coverage. Scully says Congress has sidestepped the tough job of reining in health care spending.

Earlier: Murfreesboro Teacher Receives $25,000 Award
Later: Local Business Owners Head to D.C. for Public Option