Cuts to Medicaid

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Story Published: Jun 30, 2009 at 4:41 PM MST

Story Updated: Jul 1, 2009 at 9:07 AM MST

By Hasti Taghi

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IDAHO FALLS - House Bill 123 is cutting back Idaho's Health and Welfare Funding. The 10.3 million dollar cut goes into effect tomorrow at the start of a new fiscal year.

So what does this mean?

"We're looking at about 120-thousand dollar shortcoming as far as funding for nursing homes per year," says Rich Cartney, Good Samaritan Administrator.

And that's just at the Good Samaritan society in Idaho Falls.

"Medicaid falls short in covering expenses by 16-dollars per day now," says Cartney.

"The hospital will get five percent less of what it costs to treat a medicaid patient," says Nancy Browne, EIRMC spokesperson.

Already hospitals receive only 82-percent of the costs for a medicaid patient's care. This change means 23-percent of the costs are now left for the provider to cover.

"This is really adding to the burden of hospitals who treat medicaid patients," says Browne.

"Although hospitals and other providers will be affected by these latest changes, as of now, you as a patient won't see a difference," says reporter Hasti Taghi.

"Even though we are getting less reimbursements to treat patients, our level of care will not change," says Browne.

In a statement, the department of health and welfare writes, "This doesn't impact our Medicaid participants and they are not expected to pick up the difference."

But when it comes to nursing homes, patients may have to be turned away.

"The more medicaid patients you have the more impact it has. Essentially what it will do is force nursing homes to make a decision on how many medicaid patients they can take," says Cartney.

But the cuts don't surprise these providers as they cope with the economic stress.

"Bottom line is, everybody has to take cuts and we have to make those cuts work," says Cartney.

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