Hospital industry ready to cut spending

Regarding "$9B deficit crisis: Battle lines drawn" [News, Dec. 12]: The hospital industry could not agree more that Medicaid is a high-expense item for the state and costs need to be brought under control, especially as the state faces a $9-billion budget deficit next year.

That's why a redesign of the program needs to happen now, and it must occur outside of the budget process. Otherwise we will never obtain meaningful and sustainable reform. Repeated cycles of cuts in health care funding that hospitals and other providers have absorbed these past few years will never lead us to the policy changes the Medicaid program so desperately needs to maintain its role as a safety net for the disabled, elderly and the poor, while remaining financially sustainable for the state.

A few key structural changes will set in motion an avalanche of improved efficiencies in care delivery and reduced costs overall. At the heart of this change is better coordination of care, especially for our complex-needs patients, and an expansion of Medicaid managed care to all patient populations.

These are just a few of the recommendations that the hospital industry is eager to present to the incoming Cuomo administration. While the greatest increases in Medicaid costs have occurred in the home health and long-term care service sectors, hospitals, since the recession's start, have administered care to thousands more who have ended up on the Medicaid rolls due to job loss and financial insecurity. The state reimburses hospitals a moderate percentage for the cost of this care, leaving hospitals to absorb the rest.

Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo made it clear during his campaign that tackling the state's spending is his No. 1 priority. Helping the governor achieve this goal is one of the hospital industry's top priorities heading into 2011, too. Sharing our viable, policy-based proposals for reform is the first step.

Kevin Dahill

Hauppauge

Editor's note: The writer is president of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council.